An international study is improving knowledge of why five percent of the population has problems with co-ordinating movement.
The three-year study, involving hundreds of Australian and British children, is being conducted by researchers at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.
Dr Mark Mon-Williams of the Human Movement Studies Department, is running the project at the University of Queensland. He said the agreed scientific term for this problem was Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD).
'In most respects, children with DCD are perfectly normal and may be intelligent, creative and academically capable,' Dr Mon-Williams said.
'The problems children experience with co-ordination, however, go beyond just ?not being good at sport' and seriously impede their progress in acquiring essential living skills such as running, jumping, catching and handwriting.
'A recent study managed to study a group of children 10 years after they had been identified as having DCD at the age of six, and found that in their final years of education they were still poorly co-ordinated, had low self-esteem and, as a group, were below their peers on academic performance.
'It should not, therefore, be assumed that a problem with co-ordination is a minor issue, or that children will ?grow out of it'.'
Dr Mon-Williams said a compounding problem was that the difficulties experienced by the children were still sparsely catered for by medical and educational bodies. Gaining additional support for the child could require considerable tenacity by parents or teachers.
In two parallel projects funded by the Australian Research Council ($200,000) and UK medical charity Action Research ($200,000), scientists in Australia and the United Kingdom are working to gain a clear understanding of why children with DCD have problems with co-ordination tasks.
To date, Dr Mon-Williams (University of Queensland) and Dr John Wann (University of Reading) have established that the visual function of children with DCD is normal, and there are no problems in transmitting the retinal image to the visual cortex.
On the other hand, they have found that some children with DCD have poor control of eye movements and have problems following moving objects. This area was currently under further investigation.
Dr Mon-Williams said a number of advanced skills such as running games, riding a bicycle and driving a car did not hinge purely on a set sequence of movements.
'It is important to judge how you are moving through the visual world, where you are heading and then determining if you are going off course and about to collide,' he said.
'We have tested children's sensitivity to visual motion and have found differences in the way that children with DCD use visual information to control their posture.'
Dr Mon-Williams said the current research with local primary schools in Brisbane and Reading was following up early project findings to establish what factors contributed to the problems experienced by children with DCD.
In designing more insightful tests, the researchers are capitalising on new technologies such as Virtual Reality displays, in work funded by the Australian Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Council (UK), Action Research and the European Commission.
Dr Mon-Williams said that by using computationally-generated displays, researchers could precisely control what a child saw in a 'virtual' visual world and could also precisely measure movements that were made relative to the display.
He said some of these tests had potential as future diagnostic tools, where specially designed computer fames could be used to identify specific problems with the DCD population.
Longer-term plans included setting up a local remedial program for children with DCD, capitalising on the resources and research backing available to researchers at the University of Queensland.
The University of Queensland's Centre for Physical Activity and Sport Education already organises Motor Active, a program for children aged four to 12 years who experience additional challenges with moving and playing in a controlled and co-ordinated fashion.
The program runs on Friday afternoons at the University between 4pm and 5pm. For bookings, contact the Centre at telephone 07 3365 6851.
Media: For further information, contact Dr Mon-Williams, telephone 07 3365 6817.
