Is Questionnaire-Based Screening Part of the Solution to Waiting Lists for Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder?

Abstract

This study was undertaken to determine whether questionnaire-based screening could be part of the solution to a long waiting list of referrals for occupational therapy assessment by identifying the requirement for clinical assessments. The performance of two questionnaires – the Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ) completed by parents and the Checklist of the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (C-ABC) completed by teachers – was compared with a more traditional clinical assessment for the identification of DCD in children already referred to occupational therapy. It was found that the parent report was quite reliable in the identification of DCD if no other developmental problem was present. However, there was little benefit to using the teacher report to screen children.

Several confounding variables, including an unequal proportion of children with DCD in the sample and the inclusion of children who were younger than the age range of the DCDQ, may have influenced how well the questionnaires performed. Although questionnaires cannot replace a full clinical assessment, the results showed that there may be some value in including the parent report in the identification of DCD.