Neuropsychological characteristics in children with developmental coordination disorder: an analytical review of foreign studies

Abstract

An analytical review of current foreign studies of developmental coordination disorder (developmental dyspraxia) is presented. Developmental coordination disorder is a form of dysontogenesis extensively studied in foreign psychology of abnormal development. The focus of studying this problem is currently expanding and involving not only the detailed analysis of motor functions but also the evaluation of different measures of cognitive functioning in accordance with the hypothesis of complex neuropsychological nature of developmental coordination disorder. It is shown that visual-spatial and kinesthetic information processing deficit, poor executive functions and attention, modality-non-specific memory impairments, deficit of dynamic (rate) components of activity are typical for children with developmental coordination disorder. In the present review special emphasis is given to the problem of motor and intellectual skills automatization and its syndrome-generating role in the development of this disorder. The above impairments demonstrate a complex character of the deficit in developmental coordination disorder and prove that it is due to not only motor dysfunction.