An ethological study on behavioral development and learning disabilities for extremely-low-birthweight children.

受试者为153名6~9岁极低出生体重(ELBW)儿童及其33名兄弟姐妹作为对照。我们用录像机观察它们在测试过程中的行为，并用一零抽样的方法对录像机记录进行定量分析。其中精神发育迟滞(MD)组智商<79者34例(22.5%)，非延迟组智商<80者119例(77.5%)。MD组包括23名智力低下儿童和11名边缘儿童。根据瞳孔评定量表的结果，非延迟组被细分为疑似学习障碍(LD)组42名(27.5%)和典型发育组(TD)77名(50.3%)。低出生体重儿在WISC-R、Frostig视知觉发育测验、本德尔·格式塔测验、画人测验等多项心理测验中的得分均显著低于对照组。而TD组的得分为…更多的与控制没有什么不同。LD组和MD组的行为问题明显多于对照组。但TD组与对照组在行为问题发生率上无明显差异。这些结果表明，早产可能不会影响认知能力和行为问题的发生率。我们发现了有价值的行为指标来预测极低出生体重儿的残疾。他们包括自发言语、反应性言语、点头、转椅转身或移位、解决Frostig测试所用的时间以及注视测试者的平均持续时间。例如，LD组比TD组和MD组凝视测试者的时间更短。这可能反映了学习障碍组的注意力持续时间较短。基于上述行为指标的判别函数对TD组、LD组、MD组儿童的初始分类预测正确率分别为83.3%、50.0%、72.7%和72.0%。对学习障碍的正确评估和有效干预是低出生体重儿最重要的任务。我们的研究表明，行为评估有助于正确预测低出生体重儿的学习障碍和智力迟缓。较少

Our subjects were 153 extremely-low-birthweight (ELBW) children ranging in age from 6 to 9 years old and their 33 siblings as control. We observed their behaviors during testing using VTR camera and quantitatively analyzed VTR records with one-zero sampling method. The subjects were classified as follows : the mentally delayd (MD) group of 34 subjects (22.5%) whose IQs were equal to or less than 79, and the nondelayd group of 119 subjects (77.5%) whose IQs were al least 80. The MD group consisted of 23 mentally retarded children and 11 borderline children. Using the results of the Pupil Rating Scale, the nondelayd group was subdevided into the LD-Suspected (LD) group of 42 children (27.5%) and the group of 77 typically developing (TD) children (50.3%). ELBW children showed significantly lower scores in almost of psychological tests including WISC-R,Frostig's developmental test of visual perception, Bender Gestalt Test, and Draw-A-Man Test than control. However, scores of TD group were … More not different from control. LD and MD group were found to have more behavior problems than control. However, TD group were not different from control on the incidence of behavioral problems. These results suggests that prematurity might not influence cognitive ability and incidence of behavioral problems. We found valuable behavioral indices to predict handicaps of ELBW children. They cinsist of spontaneous verbalization, responsive verbalization, nodding, turn or shift with a swivel chair, time spent for solving Frostig test, and mean duration of gaze directed to a tester. For example, LD group showed shorter duration of gaze directed to a tester than TD and MD groups. This might reflect shorter span of attention in LD group. A discriminat function based on behavioral indices above mentioned correctly predicted the original classification of 83.3% of children in TD group, 50.0% in LD group, 72.7% MD group, and totally 72.0% of all cases. Correct assessment and effective intervention of LD was the most important task for ELBW children. Our study suggests that behavioral assessment could contribute to the correct prediction of handicaps including LD and Mental Delay of ELBW children. Less