PERCEPTUAL, MOTOR AND ATTENTIONAL DEFICITS IN SEVEN‐YEAR‐OLD CHILDRENNeurological Screening Aspects

Abstract

In an extensive neuropsychiatric study of 7-yr-old children, operational criteria for diagnosing minimal brain dysfunction (MBD) syndrome were used. Detailed behavioral assessment and meticulous neurological examination provided the basis for the MBD diagnosis. The time-consuming specialist examination by the child neurologist was considered too sophisticated for use in everyday clinical practice. The results obtained at a short neurodevelopmental screening assessment performed by a child psychiatrist were analyzed with the aim of finding a limited set of neurological examination items with high discriminating capacity detecting for MBD syndromes. A set of 6 such items (diadochokinesis, hopping on 1 leg, standing on 1 leg, cutting out a paper circle, associated movements when walking on lateral sides of feet and the labyrinth test of the WISC [Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children]) produced a minimal rate of misclassified cases. This discriminant set may be useful in everyday child psychiatric and pediatric assessment of children who raise suspicion of suffering from MBD.