1997 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Etiology of Learning Difficulties and School Abjustment in High Risk Children for Learning Disabilities
| Project/Area Number |
07309014
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
広領域
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| Research Institution | The National Institute of Special Education |
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Principal Investigator |
HARA Hitoshi The National Institute of Special Education, Department of Special Education for Health Impaired, Director, 病弱教育研究部, 部長 (40120034)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
MITSUISHI Chisako Tokyo Women's Medical Collage, Maternal and Perinatal Center, Assistant Professo, 母子総合医療センター, 講師 (60174067)
MISHINA Jun Tokyo Women's Medical Collage, Maternal and Perinatal Center, Associate Professo, 母子総合医療センター, 助教授 (60277192)
OHARA Akira Toho University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Associate Profes, 小児科, 講師 (00142498)
TSUKIMOTO Ichiro Toho University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Professor, 小児科, 教授 (70100964)
TAKAMURA Tomoko The National Institute of Special Education, Department of Special Education for, 病弱教育研究部, 主任研究官 (10280570)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1995 – 1997
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| Keywords | Learning disabilities / Liarning Difficulties / Very low birth weightinfants / Childhood Cancer |
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| Research Abstract |
The present study delines high risk children for learning disabilities (LD) as school children weighed less than 1,500g at birth (VLBW group) and those with cancers of which treatment is already finished (CANCER group).
The subjects consisted of 64 children for the VLBW group and 46 for the CANCER group. The VLBW group was examined by the following six procedures : 1) WISC-R IQ test, 2) Pupils Rating Scale for LD children of Myklebust (PRS Japanese version), 3) Kobayashi-Frostig Movement Skill Test Battery (MSTB), 4) Activity levels by MINI Motionlogger Actigraph, 5) S-M Social Maturity Scale (SM ; Japanese version of Vineland's Social Maturity Scale), 6) Ego development by AN-egogram. Four of the procedures mentioned above, namely, WISC-R,MSTB,SM and AN-egogram, were administered to the CANCER group.
More than half og VLBW group showed discrepancies or scattering on WISC-R profiles, and fell under some LD subtypes in Hattori and Ueno's categorization. As for PRS,the frequency of "LD suspect" children reached 35% in VLBW group. Also, more than half of CANCER group was classified into one of the LD subtypes of WISC-R.Both groups marked below the normal range as to the mean scores of fine and gross motor gests by MSTB.The VLBW children diagnosed as having Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD ; DSM-III-R) showed higher activity level on Actigraph than that of those without any symproms of ADHD.Very few children in both groups were found deviating from the normal range either in the SM or AN-egogram.
We confirmed that both children with very low birthweights and those with cancer are at risk for LD.Related factors causing subsequent LD are suspected to include prematurity of brains in the case of VLBW children, and prophylactic radiation therapy to brains in the case of children with cancer.
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