The risk of reduced physical activity in children with probable Developmental Coordination Disorder: a prospective longitudinal study.
Clumsy ball skills at 7 foretell lazy teenage years in boys, so start motor-rich programs early.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Green et al. (2011) followed a group of 7-year-olds who showed poor ball skills.
Five years later they checked how active the same kids were at age 12.
They wanted to see if early motor trouble predicts later couch-potato habits.
What they found
Boys who moved clumsily at 7 played far less active games by 12.
Surprise: girls with the same early motor lag stayed just as active as other girls.
Poor ball skills forecast low MVPA only for boys, not girls.
How this fits with other research
Kuang et al. (2025) looked even younger. They found 3- to 6-year-olds at risk for DCD already had motor gaps, yet their activity levels still matched peers. Together the studies draw a timeline: motor problems show first, activity drop comes later, and it hits boys first.
Liang et al. (2026) pooled many studies with accelerometers. Kids with any neurodevelopmental disorder averaged 13 fewer minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity per day. The 2011 boy-only result now looks like one slice of a wider, measurable gap.
Day et al. (2021) tracked youth with autism from 9 to 18 and also saw MVPA slide faster than in typical peers. The pattern repeats across diagnoses: early motor or social issues forecast steeper activity loss in adolescence.
Why it matters
If a 7-year-old boy struggles to catch, throw, or kick, flag him for movement support now. Add extra structured games, peer modeling, and reinforcement for active play before the habit of inactivity sets. For girls, keep monitoring; motor trouble is still a red card even if activity looks fine today.
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Add a 10-minute reinforced ball-skill station to your group session for 7- to 9-year-old boys who miss catches.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The aim of the current study was to test the hypothesis that children with probable Developmental Coordination Disorder have an increased risk of reduced moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), using data from a large population based study. Prospectively collected data from 4331 children (boys=2065, girls=2266) who had completed motor coordination testing at 7 years and accelerometry at 12 years were analysed from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Probable DCD (p-DCD) was defined, using criteria based on the DSM IV classification, as those children below the 15th centile of the ALSPAC Coordination Test at seven years who had a functional impairment in activities of daily living or handwriting, excluding children with a known neurological diagnosis or IQ<70. Secondary exposure variables consisted of subtests from the ALSPAC Coordination test (manual dexterity, ball skills and balance). Objective measurement of the average daily minutes of MVPA was recorded as ≥3600 counts per minute (cpm) using actigraph accelerometry. Boys with p-DCD were less physically active than boys without DCD (mean difference in MVPA 4.36 cpm, t=2.69; p=0.007). For boys, targeting skill (bean bag toss) was related to increased MVPA, after adjustment for confounding factors including neonatal, family and environmental factors as well as Body Mass Index at age seven and 12 years (β=0.76, t=3.37, p<0.001, CI 0.32-1.20). There was no difference in level of MVPA in girls with and without p-DCD (mean difference 1.35 min, t=0.97, p=0.31), which may reflect the low levels of MVPA of girls in this cohort. Our findings suggest that the presence of movement difficulties, particularly poor targeting (bean bag toss/ball skills), at a young age is a potential risk factor for reduced MVPA in boys.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2011 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.01.040