Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a neurobiological developmental disorder, related to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). DCD is characterized by severe difficulties in learning and performing motor skills, which leads to clumsiness in everyday tasks such as dressing, eating, writing and of course also sports and games. Because of these movement problems, children with DCD are often less physically active and less fit, which leads to an increased risk of health problems such as obesity. Moreover, these problems are often not understood or even ridiculed by classmates or teachers, which means that many children with DCD also develop psychological problems. Although DCD, with a prevalence of approximately 6%, is much more common than related disorders such as ASD or ADHD, few people know about the existence of DCD. This lack of knowledge is particularly striking in the school context and leads to distressing situations in which children are unfairly punished.

In this societal valorization project, we want to create more awareness of DCD in an artistic way, especially among people in education, in order to support the target group and those involved (parents). In concrete terms, we will develop a dance performance together with 15 children and adults with DCD and under the guidance of (semi-)professional dancers. Graceful and elegant dance movements are a special challenge for the target group, but experience shows that very beautiful things can arise when we question these graceful and elegant movements in an artistic context. The dance performance will be shown at the mini-symposium on DCD, aimed at education, physiotherapists and parents of children with DCD, which will take place during the International DCD Awareness Week (October 2025). In addition, we want to document the creative process using video. This dance film will then be shown at future further training courses and via other available channels, such as the website of DCD Belgium and Dyspraxis vzw.