External focus of attention concurrently elicits optimal performance of suprapostural pole-holding task and postural stability in children with developmental coordination disorder

•We test the effects of attentional focus while addressing previous study limitations.•An external focus facilitates better pole-holding performance in DCD and TDC.•An external focus concurrently promotes greater postural stability in DCD and TDC. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of different attentional focus conditions (external focus (EF) vs. internal focus (IF) vs. no focus (NF)) on the performance of a pole-holding task and postural stability in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) and typically developing children (TDC), while addressing previous study limitations. A total of 186 participants were enrolled in the analysis comprising 91 children with DCD (28 in the EF, 32 in the IF, and 31 in the NF condition) and 95 TDC (31 in the EF, 33 in the IF, and 31 in the NF condition). Participants were required to hold a pole with their hands still and parallel to the floor while focusing on pole movement (EF), focusing on hands (IF), or without focus instructions (NF), while pole movements and postural sway were recorded. Results showed that pole movements were significantly smaller during the EF condition (p < 0.05) compared with IF and NF conditions for both the DCD and TDC groups. In addition, postural sway was significantly lower during the EF condition compared with IF and NF conditions (p < 0.05). This study verified that the EF condition can not only facilitate better performance in holding a pole horizontal and immobile, but also concurrently promote greater postural stability than both IF and NF conditions for children with DCD and TDC.