Motor Skills Disorder Follow-up

  • Chief Editor: Caroly Pataki, MD   more...
 
Updated: Jan 22, 2010
 

Inpatient & Outpatient Medications

  • No specific pharmacologic treatments improve motor performance.
  • In children who have essential tremor that is severe enough to interfere with motor abilities, propranolol and other beta-blocker agents can be used. This therapy is described in the eMedicine article Essential Tremor.
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Complications

  • Some children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) become demoralized, develop poor self-esteem, and withdraw from daily activities including those involving motor tasks (eg, drawing, writing).
  • They may develop a feeling of being different.
  • In some cases, children who show withdrawal behaviors are mistakenly believed to be poorly motivated, lazy, or not willing to make the effort to do a good job.
  • Pediatricians and other health professionals must be sensitive to the signs and symptoms of emotional withdrawal based on a child's fear of failure and a sense of hopelessness.
  • Children who have poor self-esteem and who accept the premise that they are lazy, incapable, or stupid require intervention from a mental health professional. Children who continue to have these feelings without help often show poor social functioning and compromised emotional development.
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Prognosis

  • In the absence of intervention, children with motor coordination disorder tend to have symptoms that persist through adolescence into adulthood.
  • In follow-up study of children in whom motor coordination disorder was diagnosed at the age of 15 years, Cantell et al (1994) found that 46% had persistent symptoms at the age of 25 years.[14]
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Patient Education

  • Children aged 6 or 7 years can be positively counseled to make modifications in school and in social situations to make the best of their limitations in motor tasks.
  • Acknowledging these facts and helping the children understand that this problem is not voluntary on their part and not due to lack of effort or intellectual skill is important.
  • As with other chronic medical conditions, the patient can be helped to understand the nature of the condition, to live with it, and to participate in its treatment.
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Contributor Information and Disclosures
Coauthor(s)

Anna Maria Wilms Floet, MD  Assistant Professor, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, Behavior and Developmental, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Anna Maria Wilms Floet, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American Academy of Pediatrics and Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

J Martin Maldonado-Durán, MD  Principal Investigator for Child and Family Center, Department of Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Division, Family Service and Guidance Center

J Martin Maldonado-Durán, MD is a member of the following medical societies: Kansas Medical Society

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Specialty Editor Board

Chet Johnson, MD  Medical Director, Child Development Unit, Department of Pediatrics, Professor, University of Kansas Medical Center

Chet Johnson, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American Academy of Pediatrics

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Mary L Windle, PharmD  Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Pharmacy; Pharmacy Editor, eMedicine

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Carrie Sylvester, MD, MPH  Director of Education in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Northwestern University Medical School

Carrie Sylvester, MD, MPH is a member of the following medical societies: American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Women's Association, American Psychiatric Association, and American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

Chief Editor

Caroly Pataki, MD  Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Psychiatry, Division Chair, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California

Caroly Pataki, MD is a member of the following medical societies: American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York Academy of Sciences, and Physicians for Social Responsibility

Disclosure: Nothing to disclose.

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