19 Appendices

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Appendix C – Useful Guidelines for the Assessment of a Child who may have DCD

Has the Child difficulties in any of the following areas:

1 Progress in Attainments

• Overall performance
• Is there any discrepancy between verbal and performance skills?
• Is the child’s performance variable?
• Literacy, particularly writing
• Numeracy, particularly time, sequencing, differences between reasoning and calculation
• General knowledge, oral comprehension
• PE – co-ordination and sequencing; Music – rhythm and sequencing
• Art – motor control and imagination

2 Functional Skills

• Dressing
• Using cutlery
• Handwriting
• Homework
• Changing for PE

3 Emotional State

• Signs of frustration – anger, tears
• Inconsistent, volatile
• Being switched off or distractible, poor concentration
• Tiredness
• Lacks confidence
• Low self-esteem
• Withdrawn

4 Organisational Skills

• Following instructions
• Bringing correct things to school
• Setting out work
• Memory
• Losing things
• Ability to plan and carry out tasks

5 Co-ordination/Physical

• Variable performance
• Fine motor, e.g. pencil use, scissor control
• Gross motor, e.g. running, hopping, ball skills
• Hand preference
• General clumsiness
• Activity level, e.g. fidgety, passive

6 Behavioural Characteristics

• Mannerisms, habits, e.g. tongue out when concentrating
• Any flapping, rocking, rhythmical movements
• Gait, e.g. tip-toe walks
• Posture, e.g. when sitting on a chair
• Extraneous movements, balance
• Work avoidance tactics

7 Speech, Language and Oral Skills

• Language Development
• onset of first words late (information from parents)
• slow to learn nursery rhymes, days of week (older children: difficulty picking up words of pop songs)
• Mishears what has been said
• Half hearing what has been said
• Does he have difficulty acting on spoken instructions (despite understanding the individual words)?
• Easily distracted by noise.
• Difficulty putting ideas into words and/or words in correct order
• Late to develop concepts of
  • front, back, behind
  • before and after in relation to time
• Late to understand metaphors, sarcasm, and idioms
• Eating
• poor suckling (information from parents)
• finger feeding extendsbeyond normal time expectations
• messy eating
• rushed or very slow eating

8 Social Skills

• Ability to make friends, join a group
• Isolation
• Preference for activities, e.g. team games v more solitary play
• Ability to work co-operatively
• Communication and speech and language skills

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