Elna de Waal|Anita E. Pienaar|Dané Coetzee
Gender differences in academic achievement of children with developmental coordination disorder
North-West University|North-West University|North-West University
background developmental coordination disorder dcd negative impact everyday activities academic achievement children mainly owing similar underlying motor cognitive constructs academic achievement boys girls seems different boys prone academic backlogs especially languagerelated areasaim study investigated boys dcd displayed academic problems girls dcdsetting tenyearold children n 221 041 different economic backgrounds randomly selected assessment part nwchild northwest child health integrated learning development longitudinal study north west province south africamethods movement assessment battery children second edition used determine dcd status group results annual national assessment midyear june exam included six learning areas used analyse academic differences typically developing boys girls identified dcd seven boys seven girls independent ttesting mannwhitney nonparametric tests used determine differences boys girlsresults boys dcd inferior literacy numeracy skills significantly poorer manual dexterity balancing skills also displayed statistically large practically significant weaker midyear grade point averages girls children dcd also portrayed poorer academic achievement typically developing childrenconclusion significant differences balancing skills languages boys girls dcd might contributed practically significant poorer maths performance boys