Do Relationships Exist between Brain-Hand Language and Daily Function Characteristics of Children with a Hidden Disability?

Objective: To discover whether children with a hidden disability such as Developmental Coordination Disorders (DCD) have unique brain-hand language (handwriting) and daily function characteristics and whether there are relationships between these characteristics.

Method: 20 children diagnosed with DCD and 20 typically developed controls aged 7-10 performed the Alphabet writing task on a page affixed to an electronic tablet, a component of the ComPET which documented their handwriting process. Further, their organizational ability was evaluated through daily function events as reported by their parents.

Results: Significant group differences (DCD versus controls) were found in the coefficient of variance of spatial, temporal and pressure writing process measures. Specific handwriting measures predicted the level of children’s organization abilities through daily function.

Conclusions: These results emphasize the need for further development of sophisticated computerized methods so as to gain deeper insight concerning daily function characteristics of children with hidden disabilities.