Dados do Trabalho

Título

The relationship between the neuropsychomotor and neurodevelopmental characteristics in 18 to 47 month-old children

Resumo

Introduction: the knowledge of the health professionals of neuropsychomotor and neurodevelopmental skills of children is essential for their follow-up. Objective: to investigate and associate the neuropsychomotor and neurodevelopmental skills of 18 to 47 month-old children. Methods: this research is a transversal study of the relationship between neuropsychomotor and neurodevelopmental characteristics. It included 30 parents whose children are typical and aged from 18 to 47 months-old followed by a Pediatrics Service. As materials, the NPDC (Neuropsychomotor Development Checklist) and the M-CHAT (Modified Checklist for Austism in Toddlers) were used and both are composed by dichotomous questions. The participants were divided into two groups. The first represents the children who presented risk on M-CHAT and the second those who did not present risk. Descriptive percentages and statistics analysis, Mann-Whitney Test (as statistical significance p<0.05), were used to analyze the results. Results: The neurodevelopmental risk group included six (20%) of the total number of participants (30). This group did not achieve the expected neurodevelopmental stages such as directing their gaze by 6 months-old (33%); crawling by 9 months-old (33%); inviting other children or adults to play by 18 months-old (50%); pointing named parts of their own body by 12 months-old (66%) and using phrases with two or three words (66%). Those two last skills were statistically signicant (p=0.007 and p=0.048, respectively). On the other hand, the second group, which was not at neurodevelopmental risk, presented neuropsychomotor skills below expected. However, the aspects were different if compared to the risk group, such as sitting without support by 6 months-old (20%); speaking isolated words by 14 months-old (25%) and mispronouncing speech sounds (33%). This group without risk also had some unexpected similar characteristics. Four children (16%) had not crawled by 9 months-old; six (25%) had not invited other children or adults to play; almost eight (33%) of them mispronounced speech sounds; six (25%) had not understood simple stories and all of them had pointed named parts of their own body by 12 months-old. Conclusion: Both groups underperformed on neuropsychomotor tasks and the ability of pointing named parts of their own body by 12 months-old got an important statistical significance. Thus, the neurodevelopment and neuropsychomotor follow-up is essential for typical children.