Developmental coordination disorder

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The past

One way of evaluating the success of an initiative is to see how it subsequently generates interest from other parts of the world. In 1995 a small-scale meeting was organised by Sheila Henderson in London (England) on developmental coordination disorder (DCD). This initiative has spread like an oil slick first to Leeds (England, 1995), then Cardiff (Wales, 1997) before crossing the Channel to Groningen (Netherlands, 1999). Moreover, plans are currently being developed to organise a fifth DCD

The present

The present collection of eight papers can be divided into four categories addressing the following issues: (1) when does a decreased level of motor coordination become a real problem for the child (diagnosis)?, (2) what kinds of motor coordination problems and concomitant problems are frequent among children with DCD (description )?, (3) what processes can be identified underlying the motor coordination problems (processes)?, and (4) is it possible to improve motor performance in children with

The future

Having read all contributions to this special issue the reader will, no doubt, still be left with a considerable number of unresolved issues. We have chosen to briefly mention a few (in no particular order of importance) in the hope that these will be addressed in the not too distant future.

The paper by Smits-Engelsman et al. serves as a good example of drawing attention to pitfalls in the classification of DCD. The children who participated in this study were selected on the basis of their

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the editors Piet van Wieringen and Peter Beek for giving us the opportunity to publish these papers in Human Movement Science. We thank Phillipa Butcher for her efforts to improve our clumsy English. The valuable work of the guest reviewers is much appreciated.

References (1)

  • American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington...

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