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In the absence of any complaints in early childhood, preterm children remain more at risk of encountering academic difficulties, but their clinical picture remains not well characterized. We screened visuospatial perception in 70 children born preterm consulting for scholar complaints. Developmental Coordination Disorder (with or without comorbidities) was associated with high prevalence (27%) of impaired perception of spatial relationship. Prematurely born children who obtained no diagnosis of Neuro-Developmental Disorder exhibited a high prevalence (31%) of impaired perception of object magnitude. Regression revealed that low gestational age and fetal growth restriction significantly predicted the magnitude but not the spatial relationship perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) impacts the quality of life and ability to perform coordinated actions in 5% of school‐aged children. The quality of body representations of individuals with DCD has been questioned, but never assessed. We hypothesize that children with DCD have imprecise body representations in the sensory and motor domains. Twenty neurotypical children, seventeen children with DCD (8–12 years old) and twenty neurotypical adults (25–45 years old) performed both sensory and motor body representation tasks: a limb identification and a limb movement task. We observed lower accuracy in the sensory task but not in the motor task. In both tasks, we observe a larger amplitude of errors, or synkinesis, in children with DCD than in neurotypical children. In neurotypical children, accuracy was lower than in neurotypical adults in the motor and sensory task, and the amplitude of sensory errors and synkinesis was higher than in neurotypical adults. Using a linear regression model, we showed that sensory accuracy is a good predictor of synkinesis production, and that synkinesis production is a good predictor of sensory accuracy, as can be expected by the perception‐action loop. Results support the hypothesis of an imprecision of body representation in DCD. We suggest that this imprecision arises from noise in the body representation used at the level of internal models of action. Future studies may assess whether slower plasticity of body representations, initial imprecision, or both may account for this observation. At the clinical level, prevention strategies targeting body representation in early childhood are strategically important to limit such impairments. Research Highlights: Body representation is impaired in children with DCD and has a significant cost in terms of the accuracy of sensory identification of body parts and associated movements.Inaccuracies in the body representation measured in perception and in action (error amplitude and synkinesis) are related in both NT children and adults.In typical development, we provide evidence of a strong link between body schema and body image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary is on the original article by Bonthrone et al. on pages 362–378 of this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To assess the prevalence of elementary visuospatial perception (EVSP) deficit in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Method: Using a screening test designed and validated to measure dorsal EVSP ability, 168 children (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 compared with a group of 184 typically developing children. We also tested 14 children with binocular vision dysfunction and no neurodevelopmental disorder. Results: Children with SLD scored below the interquartile range of typically developing children 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 disorder and those with binocular vision dysfunction scored similarly to the group of typically developing children. Interpretation: These results confirm the importance of assessing EVSP in the clinical evaluation of children with neurodevelopmental disorders, in particular those presenting with DCD or SLD. What this paper addsMore than half of children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) scored below the normal interquartile range on the elementary visuospatial perception (EVSP) test.More than half of children with specific learning disorder (SLD) scored below the normal interquartile range on the EVSP test.Twenty‐two percent of children with DCD performed as outliers on the EVSP test.Children with language disorder and those with binocular vision dysfunction scored similarly to typically developing children. What this paper adds: More than half of children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) scored below the normal interquartile range on the elementary visuospatial perception (EVSP) test.More than half of children with specific learning disorder (SLD) scored below the normal interquartile range on the EVSP test.Twenty‐two percent of children with DCD performed as outliers on the EVSP test.Children with language disorder and those with binocular vision dysfunction scored similarly to typically developing children. This article is commented on by Salt on pages 368–369 of this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]