Associação entre desempenho motor e eficácia percebida em crianças com transtorno do desenvolvimento da coordenação

Abstract

Children with characteristics of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have been described since the beginning of the twentieth century. Since then many researchers have been working to develop observational tools and questionnaires for children, parents and teachers to identify the problem, in order to be able to intervene in the motor coordination problems presented by many children. Currently, the most commonly used tests are The Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC-2), the Perceived Efficacy and Goal Setting System (PEGS) and the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ). The purpose of the present study was to investigate the association between the scores of the DCDQ, MABC-2, PEGS/Child and PEGS/Parents of six boys from six to nine years old with DCD. The results pointed to convergence between the DCDQ and MABC-2, and differences in the PEGS scores, suggesting inconsistency between the child's self-efficacy and the actual motor performance. It is concluded that the assessment tools used are extremely important to identify children with DCD, however the child's perception about his/her own motor performance should not be the only data on which to basis the design of an effective treatment plan. More studies are recommended in order to investigate the consistency of these results presented here.