Longitudinal study changes in coordination development disorder in preschool children

Abstract

Objective: To follow changes in the diagnosis of Typical Motor Development (MD) and the probable Coordination development disorder (pCDD) diagnostics in preschoolers for 24 months. Method: Two data collection designs were elaborated: 1) Longitudinal design of 12 months (Long-1) consisting of 201 children, with an average initial age of 3.6 ± 0.5 years old; 2) Longitudinal design of 24 months (Long-2) composed of 27 children, with an average initial age of 3.6±0.5 years old. The assessment tool used was the Movement Assessment Battery for Children 2 (MABC-2). For data analysis, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Shapiro-Wilk, Wilcoxon, and Friedman tests were used, adopting p <0.05. Results: The results of MD in Long-1 revealed a high prevalence of probable pCDD with 24.4% in the 1st evaluation and 19.4% in the 2nd evaluation. In the MD, we observed a manual dexterity improvement and a reduced ability to throw and receive during the 12 months. In manual dexterity tasks, girls were better than boys in the 2nd evaluation, and for the task of throwing and receiving boys were better at two of the evaluations. The results of MD in Long-2 showed a prevalence of 18.5% of pTDC in the first evaluation, 7.4% after 12 months, and 22.2% after 24 months. There was an increase in the score in manual dexterity over the 24 months, however, there was a decline in the balance tasks between the 3 assessments. Conclusion: It is concluded that the typical DM and the probable DCD did not show constant and consistent development during motor evaluations over 24 months, showing oscillation in the classification of probable coordination development disorder and/or typical motor development.