Systematic Review to Inform the Developmental Coordination Disorder Clinical Practice Guideline Update: Physical Therapy Examination/Evaluation.

Objective: Systematically review current evidence on the content of physical therapy (PT) examination and evaluation to inform the update to the 2020 Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG).

Methods: Eight databases were searched for studies that informed the content of PT examination and evaluation, including psychometric properties of tests and measures used in the PT management of DCD. Methodological quality and certainty of evidence were assessed.

Results: Three systematic reviews and 30 cohort studies were included. Two findings impacting the 2020 DCD CPG are: (1) very low- to high-quality evidence supports cultural adaptations and cutoff scores for DCD-specific questionnaires, and (2) very low-quality evidence supports 4 outcome measures that are responsive to change with intervention.

Conclusions: Newer evidence reaffirms 4 of 5 recommendations on examination of the 2020 DCD CPG and adds evidence that could increase the recommendation strength of 2 action statements from best practice to moderate.