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Using standardized test procedures is a reliable way of assessing early childhood development in the pediatric setting. However, normal population's developmental parameters may change over time. The aim of this study was to determine whether a change of developmental percentiles is present in infants in Germany during recent decades. Measured by an established German diagnostic instrument (Münchener Funktionelle Entwicklungsdiagnostik) we cross-sectionally compared developmental data (cognition, expressive language, language comprehension, fine and gross motor skills, social development, daily-living skills) of children aged 0-36 months collected in the 1970s and in 2018. N = 2065 children and their parents were included (1970s sample: N = 1660 and 2018 sample: N = 405). The T-Test of dependent variables showed nonsignificant differences in the developmental scales. We hypothesized an infant Flynn effect, but the results of this study suggest that there are no developmental changes associated with the 50th percentile. Nevertheless, it is critical to emphasize the need for periodic revision and re-norming of developmental test procedures, even in the absence of significant changes in individual items.

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3q29 deletion syndrome (3q29del) is associated with neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental phenotypes. We previously reported that graphomotor weakness is present in up to 78% of individuals with 3q29del. We have now explored nuances of the graphomotor phenotype and its association with other comorbidities in this population. Participants were recruited from the online 3q29 registry (3q29deletion.org) for two days of deep phenotyping. 32 individuals with 3q29del (62.5% male) were evaluated with the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI) to assess visual-motor integration. Participants were also evaluated with measures of cognitive ability, executive function, adaptive behavior, and school function. Males with 3q29del performed significantly worse than females on the VMI and Motor Coordination subtest. VMI performance was significantly associated with ADHD diagnosis and cognitive ability. Compared to published data from individuals with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, individuals with 3q29del showed significantly more impairment. The 3q29 deletion is associated with substantial deficits in visual-motor integration, Visual Perception, and Motor Coordination. Our data suggests that 3q29del may qualify as a nonverbal learning disability. Future studies should assess whether individuals with 3q29del would benefit from early interventions, including occupational therapy.

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OBJECTIVE: Prevalence of dysgraphia by age across all grade levels was determined in students with ADHD or autism. METHOD: Referred children with normal intelligence and ADHD-Combined, ADHD-Inattentive, or autism ( N = 1,034) were administered the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI) and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). RESULTS: VMI and WISC Coding scores were significantly lower than IQ and the normal mean of 100 for all diagnoses. More than half (59%) had dysgraphia, and 92% had a weakness in graphomotor ability relative to other abilities. Dysgraphia prevalence did not differ between diagnostic or age groups (6-7 years, 56%; 8-10 years, 60%; and 11-16 years, 61%). CONCLUSION: Dysgraphia is common at all ages in children and adolescents with ADHD and autism. Accommodations and strategies for addressing this problem are discussed.

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DHA is an important component of neural lipids accumulating in neural tissue during development. Inadequate DHA in gestation may compromise infant development, but it is unknown whether there are lasting effects. We sought to determine whether the observed effects of fetal DHA inadequacy on infant development persist into early childhood. This follow-up study assessed children (5-6 years) whose mothers received 400 mg/d DHA or a placebo during pregnancy. Child neurodevelopment was assessed with several age-appropriate tests including the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children. A risk-reduction model was used whereby the odds that a child from the maternal placebo group would fail to achieve a test score in the top quartile was calculated. The association of maternal DHA intake and status in gestation with child test scores, as well as with child DHA intake and status, was also determined. No differences were detected in children (n 98) from the maternal placebo and DHA groups achieving a high neurodevelopment test score (P>0·05). However, maternal DHA status was positively related to child performance on some tests including language and short-term memory. Furthermore, child DHA intake and status were related to the mother's intake and status in gestation. The neurodevelopment effects of fetal DHA inadequacy may have been lost or masked by other variables in the children. Although we provide evidence that maternal DHA status is related to child cognitive performance, the association of maternal and child DHA intake and status limits the interpretation of whether DHA before or after birth is important.

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Few studies have examined the visuomotor integration (VMI) abilities of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). An all-male sample consisting of 56 ASD participants (ages 3-23 years) and 36 typically developing (TD) participants (ages 4-26 years) completed the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (Beery VMI) as part of a larger neuropsychological battery. Participants were also administered standardized measures of intellectual functioning and the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), which assesses autism and autism-like traits. The ASD group performed significantly lower on the Beery VMI and on all IQ measures compared to the TD group. VMI performance was significantly correlated with full scale IQ (FSIQ), performance IQ (PIQ), and verbal IQ (VIQ) in the TD group only. However, when FSIQ was taken into account, no significant Beery VMI differences between groups were observed. Only one TD participant scored 1.5 standard deviations (SDs) below the Beery VMI normative sample mean, in comparison to 21% of the ASD sample. As expected, the ASD group was rated as having significantly higher levels of social impairment on the SRS compared to the TD group across all major domains. However, level of functioning on the SRS was not associated with Berry VMI performance. These findings demonstrate that a substantial number of individuals with ASD experience difficulties compared to TD in performing VMI-related tasks, and that VMI is likely affected by general cognitive ability. The fact that lowered Beery VMI performance occurred only within a subset of individuals with ASD and did not correlate with SRS would indicate that visuomotor deficits are not a core feature of ASD, even though they present at a higher rate of impairment than observed in TD participants.

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OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study was to extend our understanding of the Kyoto Scale of Psychological Development (KSPD) by comparison with a parent-rated scale, the Kinder Infant Development Scale (KIDS). METHODS: The participants of this study were 229 children aged 0-4, who were referred to the Developmental Evaluation Center of the National Center for Child Health and Development, due to a suspected developmental disorder/delay. The participants were divided into subgroups, depending on age and overall DQ. For each group separately, correlation analyses were conducted between the Developmental Quotient (DQ) of each KSPD domain and DQ of each KIDS subscale. RESULTS: For high DQ group, in all ages, the KSPD Postural-Motor (P-M) domain DQ demonstrated a high correlation with the KIDS Physical-Motor DQ, and at young ages, it was also found to be moderately or strongly associated with the KIDS Manipulation DQ. For high DQ group, the KSPD Cognitive-Adaptive (C-A) domain DQ was most consistently related to the KIDS Manipulation DQ, and was also moderately correlated with the KIDS Physical-Motor DQ, Receptive Language DQ, Social Relationship with Adults DQ, Discipline DQ, and Feeding DQ, depending on age. For high DQ group, the KSPD Language-Social (L-S) DQ most consistently showed a moderate or high correlation with the KIDS Receptive Language DQ and the Manipulation DQ, and also related to Physical-Motor DQ, Expressive Language DQ, Language Conception DQ, Social Relationship with Adults DQ, and Social Relationship with Children DQ for some age groups. The low DQ group demonstrated stronger relationships on many of the pairs of the DQ of a KSPD subdomain and the DQ of a KIDS subscale, regardless of the type of subdomains and subscales. CONCLUSIONS: For high DQ group, the KSPD P-M domain was consistently related to parent-reported physical/motor development, the C-A domain primarily reflected a child's fine motor skills and his/her ability to understand and follow verbal instructions provided by adults, while the L-S domain was associated with parent-reported language ability. For low DQ group, the effect of global delay increased overall correlations between each domain and subscale. Further studies are necessary to replicate the findings in a larger sample including typical children.

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OBJECTIVE: To determine whether early treatment with cysteamine affects cognitive functioning in patients with nephropathic cystinosis. STUDY DESIGN: Forty-six subjects aged 3-18 years with cystinosis underwent cognitive testing to determine intelligence, visual-spatial abilities, and visual-motor skills. An age-matched control group (n = 85; age 2-22 years) underwent the same tests. Age at diagnosis and age at initiation of treatment with cysteamine were recorded at the time of testing. RESULTS: Patients with cystinosis treated at or after age 2 years (late-treatment group) scored significantly lower on verbal, performance, and full-scale IQ measures, as well as on a test of visual-spatial skills, compared with patients treated before age 2 years (early-treatment group) and controls. Both groups of subjects with cystinosis demonstrated impaired visual-motor skills compared with controls, with no difference between the early-treatment and late-treatment groups. CONCLUSION: Early treatment with cysteamine appears to improve intellectual function in patients with nephropathic cystinosis. However, the lack of improvement in visual-motor function with early cysteamine treatment suggests possibly different mechanisms underlying visual-motor performance compared with other areas of cognition in this disorder.

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OBJECTIVE: To investigate the usefulness of Capute developmental test (Cognitive Adaptive Test/Clinical Linguistic and Auditory Milestone Scale, CAT/CLAMS) as a screening test for detecting the language delay by evaluating the correlation with sequenced language scale for infants (SELSI). METHOD: Subjects were comprised of 101 children (18~48 months) who were referred for evaluation of language delay. Administering CAT/CLAMS, the developmental quotients (DQs) of CAT and CLAMS, including receptive language quotient (RLQ) and expressive language quotient (ELQ), were calculated. The results of RLQ, ELQ and DQs of CAT/CLAMS were compared with the receptive, expressive and total speech quotient (SQ) of SELSI. RESULTS: The correlation between CLAMS DQ and total SQ (r=0.75, p<0.01), between CLAMS RLQ and receptive SQ (r=0.76, p<0.01), and between CLAMS ELQ and expressive SQ (r=0.79, p<0.01) was statistically significant. CLAMS (DQ<70) revealed a sensitivity of 87% and a specificity of 78% for detecting language delay defined by total SQ<70. CONCLUSION: Correlation coefficient comparing CLAMS with SELSI test was significantly high in children with language delay. CLAMS DQ 70 is a reasonable screening cutoff score for detecting total SQ<70.

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PURPOSE: Currently, there are many developmental tests of scale and screening for infants and children. However, it has been questioned about the discriminating power and the correlation among developmental tests of scale and screening. So we comprared the Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II(BSID-II) and Korean Infant and Child Developmental Test(KICDT) in terms of correlations and agreement. METHODS: Seventy two infants were studied, who visited the pediatric outpatient clinic at Cheonan Soonchunhyang University Hospital between December 2002 and September 2003. They were classified into three groups, group A of 24 full term infants, group B of 24 preterm infants, and group C of 24 disabled full term infants. We performed both tests to the all infants. RESULTS: The mean scores of mental and psychomotor developmental indices of BSID-II of group A were higher than those of group B and group C, which was statistically significant. Also, the mean scores of personal-social, language and cognitive- adaptive fields of KICDT of group A were much higher than those of group B and group C. The correlation coefficients between BSID-II and KICDT were high in many indices. The kappa coefficient by Cohen between BSID-II and KICDT is 0.45(0.24-0.66). CONCLUSION: There was a reasonable corrrelation between BSID-II and Korean infant and child developmental test in infants younger than 12 months. The kappa coefficient by Cohen between BSID-II and KICDT is not so good in this study. Further study is needed to standardize the items of KICDT.

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PURPOSE: This study was undertaken to compare the mental and motor development, unsing Bayley Developmental Scale, during infancy(6-8 months of age) according to the choice of feeding, either breast milk of formula, as well as to evaluate its influence on physical growth. METHODS: The study population was 43 normal infants between 6 and 8 months of age, of birth at gestational ages between 37 and 42 weeks, and with birth weights greater or equal to 2500g and below 4000g, excluding high risk infants who were liable for poor neurological prognosis. The breast-fed group was defined as those whoe were breast-fed for at least 3 months after birth. Bayley Developmental Test was performed using Bayley Scales of Infant Development(BSID) test kt. To obtain the data for the analysis of factors influencing the choice of feeding, we used questionnaires. We also measured height, weight, and head circumference for the evaluation of physical growth. RESULTS: We analysed statistically the influence of the educational status of mother or father, the occupational status of mother, birth rank, sex and the mode of delivery on the choice of fedding, but there were no factors causing and significant difference between the breast-fed group(n=22) and the formula-fed group(n=21). The MDI's of the breast-fed and the formula-fed were 101.0 and 103.0, respectively, while the PDI's were 104.2 and 107.0, respectively, There was no statistical difference. The mean height, weight, and head circumference were greater in the breast-fed group but wighout statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS: We may cautiously conclude from the given results that the choice of feeding would not have a great impact on the growth and development of infants.

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Forty two high risk low birth weight infants who had been admitted in neonatal intensive care unit at Yongdong Severance Hospital from August 1987 to July 1990 and followed up in the high risk infants follow-up clinic were studied for evaluation of their development using the Bayley develop-mental test at the age of 9 month(corrected age). The results obtaincd were as follows: 1) Their Mental Developmental Index(MDI)and Psychomotor Developmental Index(PDD)were 99.4+/-12.8 and 101.8+/-16.6 MDI and PDI in birth weight 1000~1500 gm group were 95.3+/-9.8 and 99.3+/-14.3 and the indexes in birth weight 1500~2500gm group were 102.2+/-14.3 and 103.5+/-17.9. 2) There is no statistical significant relationship between the results of Bayley scales and birth weight, cranial ultrasonographic finding, APGAR score, ventilator care and neonatal seizure. However, the MDI was significantly lower in small for gestational age group than appropriate gestational age group. 3) The body weight, height and head circumference measured at the age of 9 month, at the same time when Baylcy developmcntal test was performed, were 45.0+/-29.6, 40.2+/-25.7 and 46.2+/-26.8percentile of Korean Pediatric Growth Standard(1985).

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