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Perceptual, motor and attentional deficits in six-year-old children. Screening procedure in pre-school
Insights
A screening questionnaire identified perceptual, motor, and attentional deficits in Swedish children. Boys and children in day nurseries showed more issues, with 6 key questions effectively detecting MBD syndromes.
Area of Science:
- Child psychology
- Developmental pediatrics
- Neurodevelopmental disorders
Background:
- Perceptual, motor, and attentional deficits impact child development.
- Early identification of these deficits is crucial for intervention.
- Epidemiological data on these deficits in preschool populations is limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To screen a large cohort of six-year-old children for perceptual, motor, and attentional deficits.
- To investigate epidemiological aspects of these symptoms in relation to gender and preschool attendance.
- To identify a subset of questionnaire items with high diagnostic accuracy for MBD syndromes.
Main Methods:
- A population-based screening of 3,448 six-year-old children using a 34-item yes-no questionnaire.
- Analysis of epidemiological data, including gender and preschool attendance.
- Discriminant analysis of questionnaire data from 141 children undergoing neuro-psychiatric assessment.
Main Results:
- Boys exhibited significantly more deficits than girls.
- Children attending day nurseries showed higher rates of attention and behavioral problems compared to part-time preschool attendees.
- A discriminant analysis identified a set of 6 questionnaire items with high capacity for detecting MBD syndromes.
Conclusions:
- The study highlights gender and preschool environment as relevant factors in childhood developmental deficits.
- A brief questionnaire can effectively screen for these issues.
- The identified 6-item subset shows promise for efficient MBD syndrome detection.
Abstract:
3 448 six-year-old Swedish children were screened for perceptual, motor and attentional deficits with the help of a questionnaire containing 34 yes-no questions. Epidemiological aspects of single symptoms and of groups of symptoms are presented. Boys displayed many more problems than girls. Children attending day nurseries had more problems than part-time pre-school children, particularly as regards attention and behaviour. 141 of the children- 82 with and 59 without questionnaire symptoms suggestive of so-called MBD-had been examined in an extended neuro-psychiatric study. A discriminant analysis of the questionnaire was performed for these 141 children which demonstrated that a set of 6 questions had a high discriminating capacity detecting for MBD-syndromes.