Educational progress, behaviour, and motor skills at 10 years in early treated congenital hypothyroidism
a Institute of Child Health, London, b Department of
Clinical Psychology, University College, London
Correspondence to: Dr David B Grant, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH.
Accepted 16 June 1997
AIM
To assess educational attainments, behaviour,
and motor skills at 10 years of age in a group of children with
congenital hypothyroidism identified by neonatal screening.
SUBJECTS59 children with
congenital hypothyroidism born in 1978-81, 31 cases with
pretreatment thyroxine (T4) values of 40 nmol/l or below (group I) and
28 less severe cases with T4 values over 40 nmol/l (group II), together
with 59 classroom control children matched for age, sex, social class,
and main language spoken at home.
METHODSThe Neale analysis of reading ability; the
child health and education study written test of mathematics; Rutter
behaviour questionnaires for parents and teachers; the Oseretsky test
of motor proficiency (short form).
RESULTSOn all measures the
congenital hypothyroidism children in group I had less satisfactory
scores for educational attainments, behaviour, and motor skills than
those in group II and controls. For reading the differences were small
and did not reach statistical significance, but the deficits in
mathematics and total motor skills were statistically significant (p < 0.01). There were more striking and statistically significant
differences in behaviour scores, particularly with respect to
attentional difficulties. Although less striking, these were also
apparent in the group II children with mild hypothyroidism.
CONCLUSIONSAt the age of 10 years severe
congenital hypothyroidism is associated with some mild impairment in
educational and motor attainments. Behaviour problems are also
common, even in some children with less severe congenital hypothyroidism.
© 1997 by Archives of Disease in Childhood
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