Exercise Interventions and Evaluation Tools of the Cardiovascular Capacity in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

Abstract

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that causes deficits in motor learning and movement coordination. This affects posture, gross and fine motor skills, as well as the smooth running of activities of daily living. Children with DCD are more likely to adopt sedentary behaviors, and this negatively impacts their cardiovascular capacity, putting them at risk of developing metabolic diseases in adulthood. As an effective intervention to countermeasure these deleterious events, physical exercise is known to improve cardiovascular impairment. Several types of physical exercise such as aerobic exercise exist to help these children to improve their cardiovascular and motor capacities. However, when it comes to the evaluation of the cardiovascular capacity, it is often too difficult to accomplish the task leading to a loss of motivation during the test and giving a low accuracy to assess the results. The purpose of this mini review is to describe the exercise interventions and evaluation tools of the cardiovascular capacity in children with developmental coordination disorder.