Movement coordination in ball catching: comparison between boys with and without developmental coordination disorder.

This investigation examined the catching coordination of 12 boys (M age = 9.9 years, SD = .8) with and without Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD; M age = 10.5 years, SD = .8), under different task constraints. Participants attempted a total of 60 catches in central and lateral locations, under blocked and randomized conditions. No effect of randomization was found for the number of balls caught, but a significant Group x Location interaction effect (p < .0001) showed that typically developing boys had nearly perfect scores. Boys with DCD caught more balls in central (73%) than lateral trials (47%). During the latter grasping and positional errors were also evident. Due to pronounced functional difficulties in the lateral trials, and coinciding differences in the arm and leg actions, it was concluded that intersegmental coordination constituted the organizational limits for boys with DCD.