Background: Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have multiple impairments in movement, in learning, and in the activities of daily living. Studies from other countries have associated these impairments with cognitive function, particularly executive functioning, but these findings have not been confirmed in China.
Aim: Compare the executive functioning of children with DCD with that of normal children.
Methods: The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was administered to 39 children who met DSM-IV criteria of DCD identified at the Seventh People's Hospital of Hangzhou from March 2008 through March 2010. The WCST was also administered to a control group of 39 randomly selected children from one elementary school in Hangzhou.
Results: The total responses on the WCST and the number of non-perseverative errors for cases and controls were similar, but cases had significantly more errors, more perseverative responses and more perseverative errors; moreover, they completed fewer categories than controls and required more trials to complete the first category.
Conclusion: Our study confirms previous studies which show significantly impaired executive functioning in patients with DCD. Collectively, these studies suggest that the deficits in executive functioning of children with DCD significantly impair their intellectual and social development.
背景: 发育性协调运动障碍（Developmental Coordination Disorder，DCD）患儿存在明显的运动能力、学习和日常生活能力的下降。国外研究表明，患儿的这些能力下降与其认知功能尤其是执行功能的受损有关，但国内尚无此类研究证实来这些结果。
目的: 比较发育性协调运动障碍儿童与正常儿童的执行功能。
方法: 对2008年3月至2010年3月在杭州市第七人民医院就诊并符合DSM-IV发育性协调运动障碍诊断的39例患儿采用威斯康星分类卡片测验（Wisconsin Card Sorting Test，WCST）进行评估。另外，在杭州某小学随机抽取39名健康儿童作为对照组，同样对他们进行WCST评估。
结果: 两组在WCST的总应答数及非持续错误数相似，但是研究组的错误应答数、持续性应答数和持续性错误数均显著高于对照组。另外，研究组患儿完成分类数低于对照组，完成第一个分类所需的应答数也高于对照组。
结论: 本研究证实了先前一些研究的结果，即发育性协调运动障碍儿童存在明显的执行功能缺陷。所有这些研究均提示，患儿的执行功能缺陷显著影响了其智能和社会功能的发展。