ABSTRACT
Some children lack the motor skills required for everyday activities such as play, sports, and schoolwork. Although not generally delayed, they usually do not have an easily identifiable neurological disorder. This chapter involves exactly half of all children born in 1985 and attending normal schools in the community of Karlstad in the autumn of 1992. Swedish children start school at age 7 years. Karlstad is located in central Sweden and has a social class distribution, immigrant population, level of income, and education corresponding to that of Sweden as a whole. Children's environments vary with regard to demands and expectations of motor performance. Tradition and culture determine children's experience with motor activities. Children with developmental coordination disorder showed attention deficit in the home more often than the group without the diagnosis, and they had higher mean observed hyperactivity scores at the medical examination.
