Developmental coordination disorder: A discrete disability

Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have a motor learning disability that reduces their ability to interact with the environment and compromises their social and emotional development. Accordingly, these children should be given the extra assistance and consideration given to children with other learning difficulties. Even though many countries have well developed policies to support students at educational risk, children with movement difficulties are not widely considered to be members of this category. This paper argues for a change in education policy and practice in order to better support children with DCD or Motor Learning Disability (MLD). Improved teacher education practices, community education of professionals and parents and a greater interaction between parents, teachers and therapists will enrich the educational experiences of these children. A first step, however is to acknowledge that DCD is a motor learning disability (MLD) and consider adopting this alternative term. While focussing on the Australian perspective, this paper has implications for education policy and practice in all countries