[Intellectual and neurological development of 9-15-year-olds who were born as at-risk neonates].
This retrospective study deals with 296 children born between 1, Jan. 1974 and 31, Dec. 1980, who had been hospitalized as newborns at the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Berne and who had been considered at risk for abnormal psychomotor development because of well defined perinatal risk factors. Their psychomotor development had first been evaluated in the first months and years of life at the Cerebral Palsy Centre at Berne. In 1989, when the children were 9-15 years old, their neuro-intellectual development was investigated through a questionnaire sent to the families dealing with the subsequent psychosocial and scholastic course. In the CP-Centre, at a median age of 10 and mean age of 26.4 months, 247 (83.5%) of the children had been discharged with the finding of normal psychomotor development, 25 (8.4%) had been considered to show questionable findings and 24 (8.1%) to show obvious abnormal psychomotor development. On the basis of the answers to the questionnaire (median age 11 8/12, mean age 11 10/12 years; 62% return rate), 39.3% of the children had had no further problem, and 57.4% had used special support such as speech therapy or educational consulting and/or had had school problems. 3.3% showed distinct learning disabilities. More than 90% were attending a normal public school. This corresponds to the attendance in the general population. However, fewer children were in higher schools. To investigate whether the judgement in the first months and years (CP-Centre) of life corresponded to the further development (questionnaire), a subpopulation was specially evaluated in addition.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)