Neurodevelopmental screening at five years of children who were at risk neonatally.

A neurodevelopmental screening test with cumulative scoring for abnormal test responses was performed on 845 five-year-old Finnish children who, in the newborn period, had had disorders which placed them in a high-risk group, and on 70 controls. The results showed a significant difference between the neurodevelopmental scores of the risk-group children and those of the controls. The scores were higher if the child had had many of the risk factors simultaneously. Boys had significantly higher scores than girls. The mean scores also varied between different risk factors. It is evident that slight neurodevelopmental deviations at the age of five years can derive from disorders in the newborn period.