The Double Whammy: When DCD and ADHD Symptoms Collide in Young Kids
Hey there! Let’s chat about something that’s pretty important for understanding young children. You know how some kids might struggle a bit with coordination – maybe they’re a little clumsy, find sports tricky, or have a tough time with things like writing? That could be Developmental Coordination Disorder, or DCD. And then you’ve got kids who find it hard to focus, sit still, or think before they act – that’s often ADHD.
Individually, these are well-known challenges. But what happens when a child has *both*? It’s like a double whammy, and honestly, we haven’t known enough about how that combination affects their emotional world and behaviour. That’s where a cool study, the Coordination and Activity Tracking in CHildren (CATCH) study, comes in. They took a good look at young kids to see this exact thing.
Understanding the Players: DCD and ADHD
So, let’s break it down simply. Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental condition where kids have motor coordination difficulties that really get in the way of school or everyday life. It’s not because of vision problems, intellectual disability, or another diagnosed condition. It affects a fair number of kids, somewhere between 1.8% and 8.6%.
Then there’s Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This one’s also pretty common, affecting about 2.2% to 10% of children. It’s all about challenges with attention, being impulsive, or being overly active. Interestingly, ADHD can also involve some motor control or planning difficulties, which is one reason these two can look a bit alike sometimes.
Now, while they share some overlap and might even have similar underlying causes in some ways, research tells us they are indeed distinct diagnoses. But here’s the kicker: kids with ADHD have a *really* high chance of also having DCD – up to 50%! What hasn’t been as clear is how often kids who *start* with a DCD diagnosis also have ADHD symptoms. This study aimed to shed some light on that.
Why Does This Comorbidity Matter?
Knowing how often DCD and ADHD show up together is more than just interesting trivia. It has big implications! For doctors and therapists, understanding this overlap means they should probably be looking for ADHD symptoms in kids diagnosed with DCD. Catching both early could lead to better support and interventions.
For researchers, it means when they’re studying kids with DCD, they need to consider how attention difficulties might be playing a role, especially when looking at how these kids participate in school or activities. And perhaps most importantly, we need to understand the combined effect on a child’s overall well-being, especially their mental health.
We already know that DCD and ADHD on their own can make life tougher for kids. They can affect social skills, emotional well-being, getting involved in sports, and doing well in school. Both conditions are also linked to a higher chance of experiencing mental health issues like anxiety or depression.
One idea, called the environmental stress hypothesis, suggests that kids with DCD might face more stress (less social support, daily hassles, physical health issues) which impacts their mental health. Kids with ADHD face similar stressors (like bullying, negative self-image, physical health issues). So, it stands to reason that having *both* might just pile on the difficulties, potentially leading to even greater mental health challenges.
The CATCH Study: How They Looked Into It
The CATCH study followed a bunch of children over time. For this particular look, they focused on kids aged 6-9. They used standard tests to figure out the kids’ motor skills:
- Typically Motor Developing (TMD): Motor skills were just fine.
- At Risk for DCD (DCDr): Motor skills were a bit below average, potentially indicating a risk.
- Probable DCD (pDCD): Motor skills were significantly below average, strongly suggesting DCD.
To check for ADHD symptoms, parents filled out a questionnaire (the Conners Parent Rating Scale). And to understand emotional and behavioural problems, parents completed another questionnaire (the Child Behaviour Checklist, or CBCL). The CBCL looks at things like:
- Anxious/depressed feelings
- Withdrawn/depressed feelings
- Somatic complaints (physical symptoms from stress)
- Social problems
- Thought problems
- Attention problems
- Rule-breaking behaviour
- Aggressive behaviour
These can be grouped into broader categories: internalising (like anxiety, depression) and externalising (like aggression, rule-breaking) problems. The study included over 500 children with enough data to look at all these pieces.
What the Study Found: The Numbers
Okay, so what did they discover? First off, they found that a significant number of kids with motor difficulties also had clinically significant ADHD symptoms. Specifically, 28% of kids with probable DCD (pDCD) and 19% of kids at risk for DCD (DCDr) met the criteria for clinically significant ADHD symptoms. That’s higher than in the typically developing group.
Interestingly, this link seemed stronger for boys in this study. Boys with probable DCD were significantly more likely to have clinically significant ADHD symptoms compared to boys without motor impairment. The numbers for girls with motor difficulties having comorbid ADHD symptoms were lower in this sample, though the researchers note this might be partly because fewer girls were in the motor-difficulty groups, and girls with ADHD can sometimes present differently, maybe being under-classified by parent report alone in a community sample.
The Big Finding: The Impact on Feelings and Behaviour
Here’s where the “double whammy” really shows up. The study compared kids with just motor difficulties, just ADHD symptoms, and those with *both*. And the results were clear: kids who had *both* probable DCD (pDCD) *and* clinically significant ADHD symptoms had significantly *higher* scores across the board on the CBCL. This means they experienced more emotional and behavioural problems compared to kids with just pDCD or just ADHD symptoms.
For example, compared to kids with just pDCD, those with pDCD + ADHD symptoms were significantly more likely to fall into the clinical range for depression and anxiety. Compared to kids with just ADHD symptoms (but no motor impairment), those with pDCD + ADHD symptoms had significantly higher scores on scales like anxious/depressed, withdrawn/depressed, and social problems.
Kids with DCDr + ADHD symptoms also showed significantly higher scores on pretty much all the CBCL subscales compared to kids with just DCDr. They were also more likely to have issues like oppositional defiant problems and conduct problems.
This really highlights that the combination isn’t just adding challenges together; it seems to be multiplying them, especially when it comes to a child’s mental health and how they navigate their social and emotional world.
Why This Matters for Real Life
These findings aren’t just for research papers; they have important messages for everyone involved in a child’s life. If a child is showing signs of motor difficulties, it’s really important to also consider screening them for ADHD symptoms. And if a child has either motor difficulties or ADHD symptoms (or both!), it’s crucial to also check in on their mental health.
Why? Because catching these issues early means we can offer better support. This could involve tailored therapies, strategies at school, or help with managing emotions. By addressing both the motor and attention challenges, and supporting their mental health, we can hopefully help these kids participate more fully in school, activities, and just enjoy being kids.
The study suggests that maybe the environmental stressors mentioned earlier – the difficulties with schoolwork, fitting in socially, or participating in physical activities – are even tougher for kids dealing with the combined effects of DCD and ADHD symptoms. It’s like they’re facing more hurdles, which understandably takes a toll on their emotional well-being.
A Note on the Study Itself
Like any research, this study had its strengths and limitations. Using the MABC-2 over multiple time points to classify motor skills is considered a good practice. However, the sample sizes for some of the combined groups (especially girls with pDCD + ADHD symptoms) were quite small, so we need to be a bit cautious when interpreting those specific numbers.
Also, the information on ADHD symptoms and emotional/behavioural problems came solely from parent reports. While valuable, getting input from teachers or the children themselves (when appropriate) and using clinical interviews could provide an even more complete picture in future studies. And because this was a snapshot in time regarding mental health symptoms, we can’t say for sure that having both conditions *causes* the worse mental health, only that they are strongly associated.
Wrapping It Up
So, the big takeaway here is that for young children, having both motor coordination difficulties (like DCD) and clinically significant ADHD symptoms seems to be linked to a higher risk of experiencing emotional and behavioural problems. This is especially true compared to kids who only have one of these challenges, or none at all.
This study really reinforces the idea that when we see a child struggling with motor skills, we should also be thinking about whether ADHD symptoms might be present. And for kids with either or both, checking in on their mental health is absolutely vital. By looking at the whole child and screening for these overlapping issues, we can hopefully provide the comprehensive support they need to thrive.
Source: Springer
