Abstract
AIM To assess the prevalence of elementary visuospatial perception (EVSP) deficit inneurodevelopmental disorders in children.METHOD Using a screening test designed and validated to measure dorsal EVSP ability, 168children (122 males, 46 females; mean age 10y [SD 1y 10mo], range 4y 8mo–16y 4mo)diagnosed with developmental coordination disorder (DCD), specific learning disorder (SLD),attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and/or oral language disorder were comparedwith a group of 184 typically developing children. We also tested 14 children with binocularvision dysfunction and no neurodevelopmental disorder.RESULTS Children with SLD scored below the interquartile range of typically developingchildren as frequently (59%) as children with DCD, but only 5% were severely impaired (i.e.scored as outliers). Children with DCD were the most severely impaired (22% of outliers),even more so when they exhibited a co-occuring disorder. Children with language disorderand those with binocular vision dysfunction scored similarly to the group of typicallydeveloping children.INTERPRETATION These results confirm the importance of assessing EVSP in the clinicalevaluation of children with neurodevelopmental disorder, in particular those presenting withDCD or SLD.