Understanding Personal Space in Children With and Without Developmental Coordination Disorder

When approaching another individual, individuals maintain a protective zone (personal space) to ensure sufficient time for gait modifications. Although personal space dimensions are consistent in young adult literature, children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) may have inconsistencies in personal space due to difficulties with perception–action judgments. The purpose was to investigate personal space dimensions in children with and without DCD. Children with DCD ( N = 21, 10.32 [1.78] years, 15 males) and neurotypical controls ( N = 21, 10.01 [1.29] years, 11 males) completed a stop-distance task. Participants walked toward an object or pedestrian, at varying angles, and stopped when they felt that they were too close. Further, the pedestrian walked toward the stationary participant, at varying angles. Qualisys motion capture system (120 Hz) was used to record body position of the participant and the pedestrian. Regardless of group, children maintained a larger personal space distance when interacting with an object or pedestrian head-on compared to an angle ( p < .001). In both static, F (1, 40) = 4.15, p = .048, f = 0.10, and dynamic, F (1, 40) = 5.08, p = .03, f = 0.13, conditions involving a pedestrian, children with DCD maintained a larger personal space distance compared with neurotypical children. Findings from the study suggest that children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) maintain a larger personal space when interacting with another person, perhaps as a compensatory mechanism to accommodate for motor coordination difficulties.