Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a long-term neurological disorder that begins in younger years which impacts the planning of movements and co-ordination simply because something happens to the signals with the brain not being sent in the right way to the limbs. Consequently, there are actually impairments in proficient motor movements as a young child grows. The part of podiatry practitioners in dealing with a number of the problem of developmental coordination dysfunction showed up in a recent show of PodChatLive. PodChatlive is a weekly live chat hosted by Craig Payne out of Australia and Ian Griffiths from the United Kingdom. They have on regular guests to take a look at a variety of different themes. The show is broadcast live on Facebook and it is later on YouTube and as an audio version. The show where Developmental coordination dysfunction was mentioned was the episode on paediatric gait and the guest ended up being the paediatric expert Nina Davies. They discussed methodologies for evaluating the paediatric client and how just under-estimated Developmental Coordination Disorder is and just how you should be taking into consideration this rather than just pondering a clumsy child. They also talked about in-toeing walking styles and its triggers and therapies. Another intriguing issue was just how fundamental it can be to try to be goal/activity centered and concentrate on participation in activity instead of searching to “correct” or “fix” issues within the growing human.

Nina Davies is a podiatrist who graduated with a Bachelor of Science(Hons) in Podiatry at the Huddersfield University in the UK and got a Masters degree in Podiatric Clinical Biomechanics at the Staffordshire University. Nina holds a clinical leadership role at the NHS in the United Kingdom, that specialises in MSK podiatry with her clinical function generally directed at paediatrics and involving clinical pathway production, service improvement and contributing to the delivery of education and mentoring. Nina is also a visiting instructor at Staffordshire University in the United Kingdom where she delivers a course in paediatric podiatry at the post graduate level.