Your Therapy Source Magazine for Pediatric Therapists April 2016 | Page 9

Kinesthetic Deficits in Children with DCD

Research in Developmental Disabilities published research comparing kinesthetic sensitivity
in 30 children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and 30 typically developing
(TD) children all between 6 and 11 years old. Each child put their forearms on a passive
motion apparatus which extended the elbow joint at constant velocities. The children had to
focus on detecting passive arm motion and press a trigger held in their left hand once they
sensed it. The detection time was measured each time.
The results indicated the following:
1. DCD group was significantly slower detecting passive motion than TD children.
2. kinesthetic sensitivity was worse in DCD than TD children for age groups beyond six years
of age suggesting that individuals with DCD lag behind their TD counterparts in kinesthetic
sensitivity.
3. between the ages of 7 and 11 years the difference between groups is quantifiable and
significant.
4. 11 year old children with DCD performed similar to 7 year old TD children.
Reference: Kuan-yi Li et al. Kinesthetic deficit in children with developmental coordination
disorder. Research in Developmental Disabilities. Volume 38, March 2015, Pages 125–133
Now You See It, Now You Don’t (http://www.yourtherapysource.com/nowyousee) includes 20
worksheets to practice kinesthetic skills without visual input. Some children rely too much on
the visual system when completing visual motor activities. These worksheets encourage a
child to use his/her kinesthetic sense (where the body is in space) to complete a visual motor
task rather than relying on the visual system. Download sample page from Now You See It,
Now You Don’t at http://yourtherapysource.com/files/now_you_see_it_freebie.pdf

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