Perceptual, motor and attentional deficits in seven-year-old children: neurological and neurodevelopmental aspects.

This study presents the results of neurological assessments of a representative sample of seven-year-old Swedish children with perceptual, motor and attentional deficits and their controls (N = 141). Among those children diagnosed as suffering from minimal brain dysfunction (MBD), the majority showed neurodevelopmental deviations indicative of the "clumsy child syndrome'. However, 20 per cent had slight signs of choreoathetosis, diparesis, hemiparesis or ataxia. Other associated neurodevelopmental deviations are considered. The correlation between neurological findings and background factors is discussed: the MBD group had higher scores for various "organic' background factors than the comparison children, and the children with neurological syndromes had somewhat higher scores than the remaining children with MBD. The difficulties in distinguishing MBD from mental retardation, cerebral palsy and childhood psychoses is clearly illustrated. Long-term follow-up will indicate the prognostic significance of these findings.