Children with minor neurodevelopmental disorders. III: Neurological and neurodevelopmental problems at age 10.

Two previous papers have presented the results of behavioural and educational follow-up at age 10 of children diagnosed at age seven having minimal brain dysfunction (MBD), motor perception dysfunction (MPD) or attention deficit disorder (ADD), and normal control children. The present paper is concerned with the neurological and neurodevelopmental problems of these groups of children at age 10. 25 per cent of the children with severe MBD and almost 55 per cent with mild to moderate MBD had had neurological problems at age seven, but no longer had any demonstrable neurological deficit at age 10. The findings were similar in the MPD group, and the neurological status of the ADD group was similar to that of the controls. These findings are in contrast to the high rates of severe behavioural and/or school-achievement problems among the children in the MBD group, and indicate that the three-year prognosis with regard to neurological dysfunction is fairly good, but is gloomy as far as behavioural and school-achievement problems are concerned.