Developmental Coordination Disorder: Is Clumsy Motor Behavior Caused by a Lesion of the Brain at Early Age?

[摘要] Children presenting with DevelopmentalCoordination Disorder or clumsiness oftenexhibit signs of minor neurological dysfunction(MND). The data of the Groningen PerinatalProject, a long-term follow-up project .on therelations between prenatal and perinataladversities and neurological, behavioral, andcognitive development revealed that two basicforms of MND can be distinguished: simple andcomplex MND. During school age children withsimple MNDare characterized by the presenceof one or two dysfunctional clusters of MND, inadolescence by the presence of choreiformdyskinesia or hypotonia. Probably the majorsources of origin of simple MND are geneticconstitution and stress during early life. SimpleMND might reflect the lower tail of the normaldistribution of the quality of non-pathologicalbrain function. In line with this hypothesis isthe finding that simple MND is associated withonly a moderately increased risk for learning andbehavioral problems. Children withcomplex MNDpresent at school age with atleast three dysfunctional clusters of MND, inadolescence with problems in fine manipulationor coordination. Perinatal adversities play anevident etiological role in the development ofcomplex MND, suggesting that it might beattributed to a lesion of the brain at early age.In line with this idea is the finding that complexMND shows .a strong correlation with attentionand learning problems.

[学科分类] 精神健康和精神病学