Patterns of intellectual change in the dementing school child

Four children with intellectual deterioration are discussed. The importance of a developmental and educational history and sequential psychological testing is emphasized. Progressive visual impairment, clumsiness and increasingly poorly-controlled fits should alert teachers and doctors to the possibility of associated intellectual deterioration. As well as global loss, tests of memory and mental arithmetic, manipulative and perceptual skills were the most sensitive index of dementia. We propose a further subcategory of the present codes of classification of childhood psychiatric disorders.