Your Therapy Source Magazine for Pediatric Therapists May 2015 | Page 14

Motor Skill Abilities and Disruptive Behavior Disorder

Research in Developmental Disabilities published research on the motor abilities of 99
adolescents with disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) and evaluated the role of comorbid
ADHD. Each participant was assessed with The Bruininks–Oseretsky test of motor
proficiency, Second Edition. In addition, further statistical analyses were completed to
determine differences in motor profiles between individuals diagnosed with oppositional defiant
disorder (ODD) or conduct disorder (CD) and comparing the motor profiles of individuals with
or without comorbid ADHD.
The results indicated the following:
1. adolescents with DBD showed a mixed motor impairment profile. Even after controlling for
IQ, the DBD group obtained significantly lower scores in comparison to controls.
2. the adolescents with ODD and CD showed a similar motor profile.
3. adolescents with comorbid ADHD did not produce major differences in the motor profile.
The researchers concluded that since 79% of the adolescents with a DBD suffered from motor
impairment, motor ability should be addressed in research as well as in clinical practice.
Reference: Tine Van Damme, Bernard Sabbe, Dirk van West, Johan Simons. Motor abilities of
adolescents with a disruptive behavior disorder: The role of comorbidity with ADHD. Research
in Developmenta \