Prevalence and significance of minor anomalies in children with impaired development

To compare the prevalence of Waldrop's minor physical anomalies in children with developmental disorders (mental retardation, hearing and visual impairment) and healthy schoolchildren.

The study was carried out on a sample of 469 children (223 children with developmental disorders and 246 healthy schoolchildren).

Significant differences were found between the children with developmental disorders and the healthy children with regard to the number of minor anomalies and their weighted scores according to Waldrop. Multivariate discriminant analysis with two discriminative functions explained as much as 96.51% of the total variability and significantly distinguished the healthy children from the children with developmental disorders. However, no clear distinction was found between the mentally retarded children and those with visual impairment. Interrelation of the number and sum of the weighted scores of minor anomalies showed similar minor anomalies in the mentally retarded children (mean per person 3.65 and 3.82, respectively), the children with visual impairment (3.24 and 3.50), the children with hearing impairment (3.84 and 3.67) and the control group (1.70 and 1.46), although at different levels.

The high prevalence of multiple minor anomalies in children with developmental disorders suggests that during early development, factors which cause the specific developmental disorder and the occurrence of a minor anomaly have a joint effect.