He was nine. Athletic enough in some ways, quick on his feet in others. But tying his shoelaces had taken two years to learn and still required concentration. He could not catch a ball reliably. His handwriting looked like it belonged to a much younger child. His physical education teacher had quietly stopped asking him to demonstrate things in front of the class.
His parents had been told he was clumsy. What nobody had asked was why.
Developmental coordination disorder, known as DCD and often referred to as dyspraxia, is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects the ability to learn, plan, and execute coordinated movement. It affects approximately 5% of school-age children, making it more common than many parents realize. Despite appearing in diagnostic manuals for over thirty years, it remains one of the most under-recognized conditions in childhood, and without support, between 50% and 70% of children with DCD continue to experience significant motor difficulties into adolescence and adulthood.
At Next Level Speech and Physiotherapy Center, Dubai, our pediatric OT team works with children with DCD and dyspraxia, assessing the specific motor planning and coordination difficulties involved and building a therapy program around them.
What DCD Actually Is
DCD is not clumsiness. It is a specific difficulty with motor learning and motor planning: the neurological process of conceiving, organizing, and executing movement sequences. A child with DCD understands what they are trying to do. The difficulty is in the signal between intention and execution.
This is why practice alone does not fix it. A child with DCD who practices catching a ball is not developing the motor planning capacity that catching requires in the same way a typically developing child does. The practice is necessary but insufficient without the right therapeutic support.
The condition is defined by four criteria under the DSM-5: motor skill acquisition significantly below what is expected for age; motor difficulties that significantly interfere with daily activities and academic functioning; onset in the early developmental period; and motor difficulties not better explained by intellectual delay, visual impairment, or another neurological condition.
DCD co-occurs with ADHD in 30% to 50% of cases. It also appears alongside autism, dyslexia, and developmental language disorder. It frequently occurs independently of any other diagnosis.
What Parents and Teachers Notice
DCD presents differently at different ages, but certain patterns appear consistently:
- Significant delay in learning to ride a bike, swim, or catch and throw
- Handwriting that remains effortful and inconsistent despite practice
- Difficulty learning new physical skills, needing many more repetitions than peers
- Apparent clumsiness: bumping into things, dropping objects, tripping frequently
- Difficulty with self-care tasks involving sequences: tying laces, buttons, zips
- Avoidance of physical education, playground games, or sports
- Fatigue from physical tasks that do not tire peers comparably
- Difficulty with tasks requiring two hands working together
The child is often described as bright but physically awkward. The gap between their verbal ability and their physical performance is one of the things that makes DCD so confusing for families and teachers who have not encountered it before.
How Assessment Works
Assessment at Next Level Speech and Physiotherapy Center, Dubai begins with a detailed picture of the child’s motor history and current functional difficulties. The therapist asks about the specific tasks the child finds hardest, how they compare to peers, what has been tried at home and at school, and what the family’s priorities are.
Standardized motor assessments measure coordination, balance, manual dexterity, and motor planning against age-appropriate norms. Observation of the child during unstructured and structured movement tasks adds a qualitative layer that test scores alone cannot capture. The assessment also screens for the co-occurring conditions that frequently appear alongside DCD.
Findings are shared clearly with parents after the assessment, including which specific motor components are most affected, how the profile compares to DCD diagnostic criteria, and what therapy will target. A written report is provided, and school recommendations are included.
How Therapy Works
OT for DCD does not simply drill motor tasks. It works on the motor planning processes that make new movement learning possible, alongside the specific skills the child needs to build.
The task-oriented approach and the CO-OP approach are both used at the clinic depending on the child’s age and profile. CO-OP, in particular, teaches children to develop their own problem-solving strategies for motor tasks, which produces better generalization to new environments and activities than therapist-directed practice alone. For younger children, therapy is more play-based and focused on building foundational movement competence.
Fine motor work, self-care skill development, and handwriting are typically addressed alongside the broader coordination and motor planning goals. Sessions are active, varied, and calibrated to the child’s specific profile rather than to a standard DCD protocol.
Parents receive specific home guidance after each session. Motor learning consolidates through repetition across environments, and the home practice plan will reflect activities that are genuinely achievable within a family’s daily routine.
What Progress Looks Like
Progress in DCD therapy is real but not always linear. A child who could not manage buttons learns to manage them. Handwriting that was illegible becomes functional. Physical tasks that required enormous effort become more automatic. Confidence in physical situations, which is often significantly affected by years of struggling, tends to grow alongside the motor skills themselves.
Families from Dubai Marina, JBR, and Palm Jumeirah often tell us that the most significant change is not the skill they came in targeting. It is the child who tries things they had previously refused, who rejoins playground games, who stops dreading PE.
Why Next Level Speech and Physiotherapy Center, Dubai
All therapists hold DHA licensure. The clinic is in JBR, accessible from Dubai Marina, JLT, Bluewaters, and The Greens, with appointments structured around school hours. The team includes therapists working across languages, which is relevant across the internationally diverse school communities in the area.
When DCD sits alongside ADHD, autism, or another condition being addressed at the clinic, the teams communicate directly. A coordinated approach to the motor and behavioral or communicative dimensions of a child’s profile consistently produces better outcomes than treating each area separately.
Book a DCD Assessment in Dubai
If your child’s coordination and motor learning difficulties are significantly affecting their daily life, their confidence, or their participation at school, an assessment is the right first step. It does not require a GP referral.
Families from Dubai Marina, JBR, JLT, and surrounding communities are welcome to get in touch through our contact page or reach us directly on WhatsApp. For a full overview of our pediatric OT services, visit our pediatric occupational therapy page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between DCD and dyspraxia? The terms are often used interchangeably, and in clinical practice they largely overlap. DCD is the current diagnostic term used in the DSM-5 and in international clinical guidelines. Dyspraxia is an older term still widely used, particularly in the UK and among families, and tends to emphasize the motor planning dimension of the condition. For practical purposes, both refer to the same cluster of difficulties and are addressed in the same way by our OT team.
Can a child have DCD without a formal diagnosis? Yes. Many children who come to us for coordination and motor planning difficulties do not yet have a formal DCD diagnosis. The OT assessment will identify whether the profile is consistent with DCD and will provide the documentation needed if a formal diagnosis is being pursued. A diagnosis is not required to begin therapy.
Will my child grow out of DCD? Research is consistent on this: without intervention, 50% to 70% of children with DCD continue to experience significant motor difficulties into adolescence and adulthood. The condition does not resolve simply with maturation. With appropriate therapy, children make significant progress and develop the motor planning strategies that allow them to learn new skills more effectively.
My child avoids all physical activity. Is that related to DCD? Almost certainly, if DCD is the underlying picture. Children with DCD experience physical tasks as disproportionately effortful and frequently fail at activities their peers find easy. Avoidance is a rational response to repeated difficulty and embarrassment. Addressing the motor planning and coordination foundations tends to shift the avoidance once the child begins to experience competence.
How long does OT for DCD take? This varies by the child’s age, the degree of difficulty, and the specific goals. Meaningful progress on targeted skills is typically visible within three to six months of consistent therapy. For children with more complex profiles, longer-term support produces the best results. The therapist will give a realistic picture after the assessment.
Can OT help with the emotional impact of DCD? Yes, indirectly and sometimes directly. The confidence and self-perception effects of years of struggling with coordination are real and significant. As motor competence builds, most children’s self-perception shifts alongside it. For children where the emotional impact is more pronounced, the therapist will discuss whether additional support is appropriate.
Does DCD affect learning at school? Yes. Handwriting difficulties, physical education participation, the fatigue from effortful motor tasks, and the organizational challenges that frequently co-occur with DCD all affect school functioning. Our therapists provide school recommendations alongside the therapy plan, including practical strategies that teachers can implement to reduce the daily impact.
Is DCD more common in boys? Yes. Research consistently finds DCD is more commonly identified in boys, with approximately 1.9 boys affected for every girl. As with several other neurodevelopmental conditions, girls may present differently and are sometimes identified later. If you have concerns about a daughter’s coordination and motor learning, an assessment is as relevant as it would be for a son.