AimThese international clinical practice recommendations (CPR) for developmental coordination disorder (DCD), initiated by the European Academy of Childhood Disability (EACD), aim to address key questions on the definition, diagnosis, assessment, intervention, and psychosocial aspects of DCD relevant for clinical practice.MethodKey questions in five areas were considered through literature reviews and formal expert consensus. For recommendations based on evidence, literature searches on ‘mechanisms’, ‘assessment’, and ‘intervention’ were updated since the last recommendations in 2012. New searches were conducted for ‘psychosocial issues’ and ‘adolescents/adults’. Evidence was rated according to the Oxford Centre for Evidence‐Based Medicine (level of evidence [LOE] 1–4) and transferred into recommendations. For recommendations based on formal consensus, two meetings of an international, multidisciplinary expert panel were conducted with a further five Delphi rounds to develop good clinical practice (GCP) recommendations.ResultsThirty‐five recommendations were made. Eight were based on the evidence from literature reviews (three on ‘assessment’, five on ‘intervention’). Twenty‐two were updated from the 2012 recommendations. New recommendations relate to diagnosis and assessment (two GCPs) and psychosocial issues (three GCPs). Additionally, one new recommendation (LOE) reflects active video games as adjuncts to more traditional activity‐oriented and participation‐oriented interventions, and two new recommendations (one GCP, one LOE) were made for adolescents and adults with DCD.InterpretationThe CPR–DCD is a comprehensive overview of DCD and current understanding based on research evidence and expert consensus. It reflects the state of the art for clinicians and scientists of varied disciplines. The international CPR–DCD may serve as a basis for national guidelines.What this paper adds Updated international clinical practice guidelines on developmental coordination disorder (DCD).Refined and extended recommendations on clinical assessment and intervention for DCD.A critical synopsis of current research on mechanisms of DCD.A critical synopsis of psychosocial issues in DCD, with implications for clinical practice.The first international recommendations to consider adolescents and adults with DCD.

Mild cognitively impaired patients with memory plus other cognitive domain deficits, rather than those with pure amnestic MCI, constituted the high-risk group. Deficits in verbal memory and psychomotor speed/executive function abilities strongly predicted conversion to AD.

No abstract

The use of a computerized handwriting system provides objective temporal measures of handwriting performance, and may lead to the development of additional tools for the evaluation and treatment of handwriting difficulties.

No abstract

This study's aims were (a) to examine kinematically the handwriting process of persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), compared with those with mild Alzheimer's disease and healthy controls; (b) to assess the importance of these measures for the differentiation of the groups; and (c) to assess characteristics of the handwriting process across different functional tasks. Thirty-one persons with MCI, 22 with mild Alzheimer's disease, and 41 healthy controls performed functional tasks while using a computerized system. We found significant differences between the groups in almost all measures, with the MCI group assuming a position between the other groups. Temporal measures were higher and pressure was lower in more cognitively deteriorated groups. Information gathered about kinematic measures, together with cognitive functioning, allowed us to classify 69% to 72% of the participants correctly, although the classification for the MCI group was relatively poor.

To date, clinical assessment remains the gold standard in the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease (PD). We sought to identify simple characteristics of handwriting which could accurately differentiate PD patients from healthy controls. Twenty PD patients and 20 matched controls wrote their name and copied an address on a paper affixed to a digitizer. Mean pressure and mean velocity was measured for the entire task and the spatial and temporal characteristics were measured for each stroke. Results of the MANOVAs for the temporal, spatial, and pressure measures (stroke length, width, and height; mean pressure; mean time per stroke; mean velocity), for both the name writing and address copying tasks, showed significant group effects (F(6,32) = 6.72, p < 0.001; F(6,31) = 14.77, p < 0.001, respectively). A discriminant analysis was performed for the two tasks. One discriminant function was found for the group classification of all participants (Wilks' Lambda = 0.305, p < 0.001). Based on this function, 97.5% of participants were correctly classified (100% of the controls and 95% of PD patients). A Kappa value of 0.947 (p < 0.001) was calculated, demonstrating that the group classification did not occur by chance. In this pilot study we identified two simple short and routine writing tasks which differentiate PD patients from healthy controls. These writing tasks have future potential as cost-effective, fast and reliable biomarkers for PD.

The HPSQ is suitable for use by occupational therapists for identification of handwriting deficiency among school-aged children and is appropriate for varied academic and clinical uses. More studies with larger samples of varied age groups are required to further support the questionnaire's reliability and validity.