Prevalence of Developmental Coordination Disorder and Its Relationship with Demographic Factors among First and Second Grade Students of Primary School in the City of Isfahan

The aim of the present research is to study the prevalence of developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and its relation with the demographics of students in the first and second grade of primary schools in Isfahan.
The study was a descriptive survey. The population of the study consisted of all the first and second grade students of primary schools of Isfahan in the educational calendar of 2013-14. Using stratified sampling (share), the population was 1288 people. To conduct the research, first the developmental coordination disorder questionnaire (parent’s form) (Salehi, et. al, 2012) together with demographic questionnaire (self-made) were distributed among the children of the first and second grade of primary school. After the initial screening, the developmental coordination disorder questionnaire (Teachers) (Salehi, et. al., 2011) was used and finally for a precise diagnosis of the persons with developmental coordination disorder the clinical observations were employed.
Results show that of all 1288 children under the study, 35 patients were determined with developmental coordination disorder and the prevalence of this disorder in Isfahan was 2.7 percent. Also, the results show that prevalence of DCD in the first grade of primary school children is 3.41% and in the second grade of primary school children in Isfahan is 2 .02%. Furthermore, the prevalence of developmental coordination disorder was 2.94% in boys and 2.3% in girls. Of course, there was no statistically significant gender difference in boys and girls. Additionally, in relation with DCD and demographic characteristics of this disorder with the age and gender of the children, nor with the age, educations, and occupation of parents, mothers’ age of pregnancy, number of the children at home and the order of the child, no significant relationship was observed and it was significantly associated only with the status of a child's education (p Since this disorder has effects on the motor skills, self-concept, self-esteem and academic skills of students, therefore, early diagnosis and timely treatment of this disorder seems necessary.