Gender differences in academic achievement of children with developmental coordination disorder
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Date
2018Author
De Waal, Elna
Pienaar, Anita E.
Coetzee, Dané
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Show full item recordAbstract
Background: Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) has a negative impact on everyday
activities and academic achievement in children, mainly owing to similar underlying motor
and cognitive constructs. Academic achievement of boys and girls seems to be different, with
boys being more prone to academic backlogs, especially in language-related areas.
Aim: This study investigated if boys with DCD displayed more academic problems than girls
with DCD.
Setting: Ten-year-old children (N = 221, ±0.41) from different economic backgrounds were
randomly selected for assessment as part of the NW-CHILD (North-West Child Health,
Integrated with Learning and Development) longitudinal study in the North West Province of
South Africa.
Methods: The Movement Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition, was used to
determine DCD status in the group. The results of the Annual National Assessment and the
mid-year June exam, which included six learning areas, were used to analyse academic
differences between typically developing boys and girls and those who were identified with
DCD (seven boys, seven girls). Independent t-testing and Mann–Whitney non-parametric
tests were used to determine differences between boys and girls.
Results: Boys with DCD had inferior literacy and numeracy skills, significantly poorer manual
dexterity and balancing skills and also displayed statistically and large practically significant
weaker mid-year grade point averages than girls. Children with DCD also portrayed poorer
academic achievement than typically developing children.
Conclusion: Significant differences in balancing skills and in languages between boys and
girls with DCD might have contributed to the practically significant poorer maths performance
of boys
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/32915https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/515/868
https://doi.org/10.4102/sajce.v8i1.515
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- Faculty of Health Sciences [2385]