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Visuospatial functions in preterm schoolchildren without cognitive delay: Using Pascual's Graphomotor test as a
María Concepción Miranda-Herrero1, María Vázquez-López1, Estibaliz Barredo-Valderrama1
1Department of Neuropediatrics, Hospital Materno Infantil Gregorio Marañón, Calle O'Donnell 48-50, 28009 Madrid, Spain.
Background:
Preterm children obtain worse scores in tests that evaluate visuospatial functions. Pascual's graphomotor test (PGMt) assesses maturity in copying drawings in childhood, quickly evaluating the graphomotor aptitude that is a partial aspect of non-verbal intelligence.
Aims:
To evaluate visuospatial functions in preterm children compared to full-term children. To assess the capacity of the Pascual graphomotor test (PGMt) to detect visuospatial disorders more specifically than non-verbal intelligence quotient (IQ).
Study Design And Subjects:
case and control study.
Cases:
preterm children between 5 and 11 years of age without cognitive delay; controls: full-term children with the same characteristics. For each child clinical history, neurological examination, language-free intelligence test Toni 2 (IQ) and Pascual's graphomotor test (PGMt) were carried out.
Results:
135 children were enrolled (59 cases vs. 79 controls). The mean age was 7.4 years. 55% were male. The mean gestational age of cases was 30.5 weeks with 34% extremely preterm. Cases obtained worse mean scores in both tests. The mean IQ scores were: cases 117.4, controls 125.0 (p = 0.004). The mean graphomotor quotient (GQ) scores were statistically and clinically significant (cases 76.8; controls 98.3, p = 0.001). Although we have found a positive correlation between IQ and GQ scores (cc = 0.31 p = 0.01), the differences found in the GQ between groups have been maintained regardless of the IQ in the multivariate analysis (GQ: cases 78.3 (SD 14.8), controls 98.3 (SD 12.5), p = 0.04).
Conclusions:
GQ is a useful tool for screening for visuospatial anomalies. GQ more specifically measures the visuoperceptive disorder regardless of non-verbal cognitive level.
