Developmental co-ordination disorder (or DCD for short) is the umbrella term used to describe difficulties with control, organisation and planning of posture and movement which leads to poor motor co-ordination and impaired performance in carrying out motor activities.

Dyspraxia is a term that is often used interchangeably with DCD in the UK but in fact dyspraxia is just one type of DCD and not all children with DCD have dyspraxia. Other types of DCD include perceptual motor co-ordination disorder and disorder of motor control.

Dyspraxia affects the ability to plan and organise how to move the body; perceptual motor co-ordination disorder affects the processing and interpreting of visual information and disorder of motor control is largely due to postural instability which affects the ability to co-ordinate muscles to work together to maintain a position or posture.

All the disorders affect the ability to carry out every day motor activities in a smooth and co-ordinated way.