Social Work Now: the Practice Journal of Child, Youth and Family, 6, April 1997, pp.6-11.
Publisher:
Child, Youth and Family (Department of Child, Youth and Family Services, Te Tari Awhina I te Tamaiti, te Rangatahi, tae atu ki te Whanau)
Looks at the history and situation in New Zealand with regard to the state's role in caring for children with disabilities, discussing also the roles of institutions, voluntary organisatiions, the community and the Children, Young Persons and their Families Service, ending with guidelines for social workers.
Looks at the history and situation in New Zealand with regard to the state's role in caring for children with disabilities, discussing also the roles of institutions, voluntary organisatiions, the community and the Children, Young Persons and their Families Service, ending with guidelines for social workers.
Child: Care, Health and Development, 33(5), September 2007, pp.520-528.
Publisher:
Wiley
Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) are a heterogeneous group who have a marked impairment in the performance of functional motor skills. Provision for these children is usually made via a paediatrician through occupational or physiotherapy; though with a prevalence rate of 5%, regular provision is rarely possible because of limited professional resources. This study covers...
Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) are a heterogeneous group who have a marked impairment in the performance of functional motor skills. Provision for these children is usually made via a paediatrician through occupational or physiotherapy; though with a prevalence rate of 5%, regular provision is rarely possible because of limited professional resources. This study covers a period of nearly 4 years and initially examined a group of 31 children first identified as having DCD at 7–9 years of age. The children were observed and assessed before, during and after a total of 16 weeks of intervention carried out by parents and teachers. This was followed by a period of monitoring of performance for 26 of the children in the motor domain plus other abilities such as educational progress and self-concept. Individual children were tracked using a variety of qualitative and quantitative approaches, building up longitudinal whole child profiles. Following intervention, 14 of the 26 children have shown improvement and stability in all areas and no longer display DCD symptoms. Eight children have profiles which have shown variability, with the children moving in and out of the DCD classification, while the remaining four children have consistently scored poorly in their movement skills and in addition received ongoing support in school for academic subjects. The study has confirmed that children with DCD show varying profiles over a period of time and that the profiles have distinct characteristics related to events in the child’s life. This approach to examining stability and change in the progressions of children’s difficulties is in keeping with an ecological approach to explaining development with its multilayered influences creating changes.
Child: Care, Health and Development, 33(5), September 2007, pp.513-519.
Publisher:
Wiley
Joint Hypermobility Syndrome (JHS) and Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) are two childhood disorders usually identified separately. DCD is a heterogeneous condition with little known of the underlying aetiology of the disorder. This paper examines the potential overlap between DCD and JHS and examines children with DCD for symptoms which may be consistent with a diagnosis of JHS...
Joint Hypermobility Syndrome (JHS) and Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) are two childhood disorders usually identified separately. DCD is a heterogeneous condition with little known of the underlying aetiology of the disorder. This paper examines the potential overlap between DCD and JHS and examines children with DCD for symptoms which may be consistent with a diagnosis of JHS. Implications for research and clinical practice are considered. A questionnaire covering a range of symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of JHS and related autonomic nervous systemic symptoms was completed by parents from 27 children with DCD and compared with responses from parents of 27 typically developing children. Children with DCD showed a significant difference from the group of typically developing children on questions regarding hypermobility, pain and autonomic nervous system symptoms, typifying JHS. This study has shown a similarity in symptoms seen in some DCD children to those with a diagnosis of JHS. In addition, children are also presenting with multi-system symptomatology including those involving the autonomic nervous system. This study reinforces other recent work showing the reverse pattern of JHS children showing similar functional similarities to DCD children. This has implications for future research in DCD in order to understand the underlying aetiology of this complex disorder. In addition, it is important for clinicians to be aware of these findings in order to provide appropriate and tailored support and treatment for children presenting with differing patterns of co-ordination difficulties. Children with DCD and JHS may require appropriate podiatry as well as recognition of their symptoms of pain and how this may affect participation in physical activity.
Child: Care, Health and Development, 32(6), November 2006, pp.633-647.
Publisher:
Wiley
This study aimed to test the internal modelling deficit (IMD) hypothesis using the mental rotation paradigm. According to the IMD hypothesis, children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have an impaired ability to internally represent action. Thirty-six children (18 DCD) completed four tasks: two versions of a single-hand rotation task (with and without explicit imagery instructions...
This study aimed to test the internal modelling deficit (IMD) hypothesis using the mental rotation paradigm. According to the IMD hypothesis, children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have an impaired ability to internally represent action. Thirty-six children (18 DCD) completed four tasks: two versions of a single-hand rotation task (with and without explicit imagery instructions), a whole-body imagery task and an alphanumeric rotation task. There was partial support for the hypothesis that children with DCD would display an atypical pattern of performance on the hand rotation task, requiring implicit use of motor imagery. Overall, there were no significant differences between the DCD and control groups when the hand task was completed without explicit instructions, on either response time or accuracy. However, when imagery instructions were introduced, the controls were significantly more accurate than the DCD group, indicating that children with DCD were unable to benefit from explicit cuing. As predicted, the controls were also significantly more accurate than the DCD group on the whole-body task, with the accuracy of the DCD group barely rising above chance. Finally, and as expected, there was no difference between the groups on the alphanumeric task, a measure of visual (or object-related) imagery. The inability of the DCD group to utilize specific motor imagery instructions and to perform egocentric transformations lends some support to the IMD hypothesis. Future work needs to address the question of whether the IMD itself is subgroup-specific.