Abstract
This study aimed to examine the visual-motor integration and manual dexterity skills in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD). A cross-sectional descriptive study of 22 children aged 7 to 11 years old with DCD, assessed with the Brazilian version of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ-Brazil), Movement Assessment Battery for Children Second Edition (MABC-2) and Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration Sixth Edition (VMI). Four girls and 18 boys participated. Considering the 25th percentile in VMI as the cutoff point, 12 children presented a below-average performance in the visual-motor integration domain, 13 in the visual domain, and 19 in the motor coordination domain. We observed a statistically significant correlation between the motor dexterity and the total MABC-2 percentiles, but not between the MABC-2 percentiles and the different domains evaluated with the VMI. The results suggest that the combined use of tests for better assessment of children with DCD is needed and important to detect their real difficulties in both visuomotor integration and manual dexterity and their implications on the performance of children's daily activities.
Keywords:
Child; Motor Skill Disorders; Motor Skills; Handwriting; Occupational Therapy