The natural life history of children with minimal brain dysfunction

Speech perception and speech comprehension investigations of pre-term newborns and high-risk neonates of pre-school age

The purpose of this study is to establish whether there is any connection between neonatal morbidity and speech perception and comprehension in children of pre-school age who have previously been treated as newborn infants in an intensive care unit. The test applied is a method invented in Hungary for the analysis of global hearing, speech perception and comprehension. The authors summarize the results of their follow-up studies of 52 children with respiratory disorders as newborns, some of whom were born as pre-term and some as full-term newborns with asphyxia. The children have been put into three groups according to their maturity and their birthweight. Newborns with hearing loss and mental retardation were excluded from this study. Of the various neonatal factors the results show: complications of delivery, birthweight, hypoxia, persistent ductus arteriosus, duration of ventilation and complications of respiratory treatment are found to be correlated to perception and comprehension. Incidences of poor achievement obtained in the most characteristic subtests have been compared among the different groups of newborns. The intelligence level of pre-school children is found to be closely correlated to speech perception and comprehension.

Perinatal retinal haemorrhages and development. Follow-up in seven year olds

Depending on methods of delivery, 7-50% of all children are born with retinal haemorrhages (RH). To assess the prognostic value of extensive RH for the future development of the child, the ophthalmological, neurological and psychological status of 52 children, 26 born with RH and 26 controls, were examined at the age of seven years. There were significant differences between the two groups using only psychological measures. Children with RH performed poorer than the control group, but the results did not point to any particular cerebral areas being affected. However, children with both RH and low socio-economic status were significantly less emotionally stable than the controls. Socio-economic factors also seem to be more highly correlated with later performance than do RH.

Clinical linguistic and auditory milestone scale: prediction of cognition in infancy

At each well-child examination between birth and two years, parents of 448 infants were questioned about their child's age at attainment of 25 linguistic and auditory milestones. Parental reports were compared with the results of independently administered Bayley Mental Developmental Index (MDI) at one year of age. Parental recall of information was high, ranging from 70 to 99 per cent for 21 of the 25 milestones. The milestone performance of infants with normal MDI scores showed an orderly, sequential progression of expressive and receptive language. Across the entire population studied, the correlation between milestone attainment and MDI was statistically significant for 24 of the 25 milestones, and later attainment of milestones correlated with lower MDI. As a group, 'delayed' infants (MDI less than 68) attained milestones significantly later than 'average' infants (MDI 85 to 116) for 20 of 25 items. Attention to linguistic and auditory milestones early in infancy can contribute to the early detection and diagnosis of mental retardation and disorders of communication.

School dysfunction in the adolescent

The adolescent with school dysfunction presents a multifaceted problem to his parents, to the school, to his physician, and to himself. He struggles with the developmental tasks of adolescence against great odds, entering this important period of life discouraged by school failure and poor self-esteem. Follow-up studies demonstrate that he is at high risk for social, emotional, and psychiatric problems. Despite the pessimistic nature of most of this research, the field holds much promise. New techniques of prevention, assessment, and teaching, as well as prediction of response to education and medication, are being explored and recent research has demonstrated that adolescents with learning disabilities and hyperactivity can continue to make progress and develop into successful, happy adults.