Myomancy ADHD, Dyslexia and Autism

From the archives of Behavioral Brain Research journal I found this study: Do ‘clumsy’ children have visual deficits [ PDF ]. This caught my eye because clumsiness and learning difficulties like dyslexia, ADHD or dyspraxia can be associated. Clumsiness is not quite the same as being uncoordinated which will obviously lead to the occasional accident. It is more about being unaware of the world around you. I tried to find a medical definition of clumsiness but no luck. Clumsiness seems to be one of those things you know when to see it.
The study took 54 children about the age of ten and assessed them using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children, a test that produces reliable “measures of movement competence, manual dexterity, ball skills, static and dynamic balance“. They then took the thirteen worst, highest scoring students and the thirteen children with the best or lowest scores. The group of worst scores had on average a score of 14.5 where as the lowest scorers had an average of 1.3 representing a large gap in their motor abilities. They then put all the children through three separate visual tests that probed how well the brain processes visual information. The result demonstrated that the children with the worst manual dexterity and movement skill also had the worst visual processing skills.
This is significant because it demonstrates how neurological deficits in seeing could have an important role in clumsiness. So if a child is clumsy and has learning difficulties then they both might be caused by the same problem.
See also: Vision and Learning, Left blind-spot ‘gives ADHD clue’ and Visual Problems Equals Learning Problems?