[Frequency and presentation of somatic brain damage criteria in risk children]

The data given in the literature about frequency and relative importance of diagnostic criteria for children with cerebral lesions show considerable differences and so do, as a consequence, diagnosing practice and epidemiological statements. This study aims at weighting the determing factors of a diagnosis and ascretining their interrelations and the associated influence on the psychic-mental development. In a total of 279 six-year-old risk and control children eight criteria regarding brain damage were recorded. The conclusive results give evidence of the influence exerted by organic conditions on the child's development and of the possibility of objectification by common methods. There is no justifiable alternative to a primarily organic basis of the diagnosis of infantile brain damage.