Diagnosis and management of developmental coordination disorder.

©2015 8872147 Canada Inc. or its licensors CMAJ 1 Developmental coordination disorder is a common neuromotor condition, affecting about 5%–6% of school-aged children;1 this equates to more than 400 000 Can adian children.2 Despite its prevalence, developmental coordination disorder may be underrecognized by health care professionals.1,3 In a recent online survey of 1297 parents, teachers and physicians, only 41% of pediatricians and 23% of general practitioners had knowledge of the condition; the physician respondents were from Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.3 Furthermore, only 23% of the pediatricians and 9% of the general practitioners surveyed had ever diagnosed developmental coordination disorder. The vast majority of the physicians reported the need for more education about the condition.3 In this article, we define developmental coordination disorder and describe how it is diagnosed, discuss associated risk factors and the consequences of the condition on physical, social and emotional well-being, and present the evidence that supports promising interventions. This review is supported by the findings of recent systematic reviews as well as evidence-based recommendations from the European Academy of Childhood Disability1 (Box 1).