The Nature of Developmental Coordination Disorder: Inter- and Intragroup Differences

The nature of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) in a selected group of Singaporean children ( n = 69) aged 6-9 years was investigated by two methods: an intergroup comparison of children with DCD and matched controls ( n = 69), and an intragroup study on the same children with DCD in the search for subtypes within this group. The results from the two approaches demonstrate that while the children with DCD are clearly different from the control subjects, the difficulties seen within the DCD group are not common to all the children. Four identifiable subtypes were found within the children with DCD. This more specific information gained about the difficulties children with DCD experience is not easily established from the intergroup analysis, suggesting that the design of future intervention studies should incorporate differences found in subtypes of children with DCD.