Development and relationship of motor performance, executive functions, and scholastic achievement in children at risk for developmental coordination disorders

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A three-year longitudinal study using a cohort-sequence design is planned to examine motor and cognitive development in children aged 5 or 6 years at the beginning of the study. The sample includes children at risk for developmental coordination disorders as well as control children. A first aim of the study concerns the detailed description and analysis of the developmental pathways of motor and cognitive functions in both groups, with a focus on quantitative and/or qualitative deviations from normative development in the area of executive functions for children at risk. A second aim is to investigate relationships and interactions of cognitive and motor performance in the two groups of children. This should allow answering the question whether a potentially underlying inhibition deficit is responsible for cognitive and motor problems of children at risk. A third aim is to analyze the longitudinal stabilities of motor and cognitive performance. This should enable us to answer the question whether children at risk for developmental coordination disorder will later catch up with their age mates, or whether the problems still persist. At the third measurement point, children´s scholastic achievement will be assessed to identify predictors which might be responsible for frequent school problems of children at risk in terms of developmental coordination disorders.