ABSTRACT
Children in the NINCDS Collaborative Perinatal Project were given speech, language, and hearing examinations at 3 years of age and tests of mental and motor performance (including the Stanford-Binet IQ) at age 4. This chapter describes associations between performance on these tests and the three minimal brain dysfunction (MBD) symptoms at age 7—learning difficulties, hyperkinetic-impulsive behavior, and neurological “soft signs”. It details the associations between the preschool predictors and summarizes MBD symptoms with the help of a discriminant function analysis. Children with abnormal language reception (3% of the whites and 9% of blacks examined) had an increased frequency of all three MBD symptoms. The 4-year psychological test battery included the Graham-Ernhart Block Sort Test, which was developed to assess conceptual and perceptual-motor abilities in young children. The hopping task required the child to execute a well-balanced hop on one foot.
