ExtractFive hundred low birth weight children and 492 full-term infants were seen when approximately 40 weeks of age for a pediatric-neurologic examination. Of these, 822 provided the data upon which this report is based. To each child, when eight to ten years of age, there was administered ten subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Test for Children (WISG), the Bender Gestalt Test and the Wide Range Reading and Spelling Achievement Test. In addition, observations were recorded regarding speech articulation and complexity of grammar. The number of perseveration instances and indications of possible comprehension aphasia observed during the examinations were recorded. The Verbal IQ_, Performance IO_ and Full Scale IO_ scores, as well as the independently obtained Bender Gestalt score, showed increasing impairment with decreasing birth weight. Approximately twice as large a proportion of low birth weight children as of control children fell into the IO_ category (50-79) which is associated with special medical or educational needs. At the ages of six to seven years the results of the Stanford-Binet Test showed an IQ, difference between the low birth weight and full-sized groups of 3.4 points (F = 7.77, 3 and 810 df, p < 0.001), whereas the WISG given at the ages of eight to ten years indicated an IO_ difference of 4.9 points (F = 10.87, 3 and 810 df, p < 0.001) for the same samples of children. Of the twenty psychological measures used to assess development of those who had been premature, relative impairment on 16 were significantly associated with birth weight and one was nearly so at the 0.05 level of significance. When the effect of the presence of indicators of possible neurologic abnormality was removed by analysis of covariance, the statistical significance of the association with birth weight was reduced for each of the variables measured, and only six of the twenty remained with significant assocation. SpeculationFuture research might profitably consider whether performance by adolescents of low birth weight is relatively impaired in scholastic situations. Also, recent research suggests that a low birth weight occurring in conjunction with long gestational periods, may significantly prejudice intellectual capacity. However, there are little longitudinal data regarding this.
Data in life table form are presented from a 12-year prospective study of 859 children on the age of attaining bladder control for waking and sleeping hours by three indices: (1) age of initial dryness, (2) age of final dryness, and (3) the prevalence of dryness. By use of these indices the large contribution of relapsers to enuresis is seen. The prevalence of bedwetting in the study population was greater than that reported in other studies; the validity of this finding is defended. A larger proportion of female than male children attained both day and night dryness during the first 2 years of life. The percentage of Negro boys who first attained dryness was less than that of the other three race-sex groups after 2 years of age and was significantly less than that of Negro girls until 9 years of age. One quarter of the 817 children who attained initial nighttime dryness by age 12 relapsed; these relapsing episodes had a median duration of 2.5 years. One tenth of 855 children who attained initial daytime dryness had relapses, and the median length of these was 1.2 years. Relapsing occurred much more frequently in Negro than Caucasian children; it also was seen more often in Caucasian males than in Caucasian females. Low birth weight children had a higher percentage of children wet for both waking and sleeping hours than did full birth weight children.
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