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Biomedical subjects

J Coplan

Publications and source records attributed to J Coplan.

35 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Neurodevelopmental outcome of preschool children born preterm with and without intracranial hemorrhage.

Thirty-five children who had been born preterm with and without intracranial hemorrhage and weighing less than or equal to 1500 g were followed prospectively to assess neurodevelopmental outcome. The 13 children with hemorrhage were inferior to the 22 without hemorrhage in terms of birthweight, Apgar scores, health complications at and after birth, neurological integrity at age five and several scales of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities. The hemorrhage group performed significantly below the standardized mean on each of the McCarthy scales, whereas the group without hemorrhage performed below the mean only in Quantitative and Memory scores. The Bayley scales at one year were not clinically sensitive to hemorrhage, but were predictive of McCarthy General Cognitive Index scores at age five. A greater proportion of children with hemorrhage have had educational difficulties and have been included in alternative school programs. Preterm, very low-birthweight children, and particularly those with intracranial hemorrhage, are at high risk for motor, perceptual and cognitive defects which underlie learning difficulties.

Brain Damage, Chronic↗
PubMed1987

Deafness: ever heard of it? Delayed recognition of permanent hearing loss.

Records of approximately 1,000 children seen for evaluation of developmental delay during the period July 1979 to December 1985 were reviewed; 46 children with permanent hearing loss were identified. Age at diagnosis of deafness and factors contributing to delay in diagnosis were sought. Mean age at diagnosis of profound congenital deafness was 24 months. Lesser degrees of congenital hearing loss were not diagnosed until 48 months of age. High-risk medical history or physical anomalies associated with embryologic abnormalities of the auditory system that should have triggered a prompt search for deafness went unheeded in most instances. In 40% of subjects, the author was the first to diagnose hearing loss. For two thirds of this subgroup, audiologic referral was prompted by medical, physical, or developmental findings rather than clinically evident hearing loss during physical examination. Adherence to specific historical, physical, or developmental risk criteria, regardless of the examiner's subjective impression of how well the child seems to hear, would have permitted the timely diagnosis of hearing impairment in all children in this series.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1985

Evaluation of the child with delayed speech or language.

Because of the relative frequency of speech/language delay, all infants and preschool children should undergo routine language screening as part of health care maintenance. Diagnostic evaluation of the child with speech or language delay should answer the following questions: What is the child's descriptive diagnosis (eg, hearing impaired, mentally retarded, DLD, etc.)? What is the child's etiologic diagnosis (eg, congenital viral infection, single gene disorder, birth asphyxia, etc.)? What is the appropriate intervention strategy (amplification, orally based speech therapy, total communication, "infant stimulation" program, etc.)? What is this child's long-term prognosis, to the extent that this is knowable? All children with speech or language delay should undergo formal audiologic testing, regardless of how well the child seems to hear in an office setting, and regardless of whether other disabilities are present which might independently explain the speech/language delay. Evaluation by a psychologist, a speech/language pathologist, or both should follow, with referral to an appropriate intervention program based upon the results of formal developmental testing. Additional medical evaluation (eg, CAT scan, EEG, karyotype), and genetic counseling must be determined on a case-by-case basis. Long-term follow-up should include an awareness that speech or language delay during the preschool years often signifies long-term developmental difficulties, warranting close follow-up of such children as they advance through the school age years.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1985

Wrongful life and wrongful birth: new concepts for the pediatrician.

Over the past two decades, numerous suits for damages have been brought against physicians for the injury of wrongful life, or wrongful birth. Within the past 5 years, several precedents have been set that broaden the physician's legal obligation to recognize and act upon foreseeable or potentially recurrent genetic, teratogenic, or chromosomal disorders. These precedents may be expected to affect all physicians, but particularly pediatricians, because of the increased frequency of such disorders in the pediatric population.

Abortion, Therapeutic↗
PubMed1984

Motor disorders of voice and speech in Reye's syndrome survivors.

Disorders of voice and speech were studied in 43 survivors of Reye's syndrome (RS). During hospital convalescence 26 (60%) of 43 were aphonic, hoarse, or had other alterations of speech production. These disorders occurred in those patients with the worst severity of RS. Four patients (9% of survivors) had a persistent motor voice or speech disorder at follow-up examination 1 1/2 to five years after recovery. All of the patients have breathy, low-intensity voice quality, whereas three of the four exhibit rapid and slurred speech. These four children have no difficulty with the symbolic aspects of language and their motor voice and speech impairment cannot be ascribed to global intellectual deficit. Although other neurologic deficits are present in three of these four children, the disorders of voice and speech are the major permanent disabling handicap in our RS survivors.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Parental estimate of child's developmental level in a high-risk population.

Forty-six children referred for developmental assessment underwent formal testing of language and intellectual development, and for each child a formal developmental quotient (FDQ) was obtained. Each child's mother was asked to provide a subjective estimate of her child's level of function, which was converted to a developmental quotient by dividing by the child's chronological age. The correlation coefficient between this derived parental developmental quotient estimate (DPDQE) and the FDQ was .85 (P less than .001). The DPDQE displayed 75% sensitivity and 100% specificity in detecting children with an FDQ of 69 or less. The DPDQE may be useful as one component of the routine office examination for preschool children.

Child Development↗
PubMed1982

Validation of an early language milestone scale in a high-risk population.

Detailed language evaluations were obtained by interviewing the parents of 191 healthy children aged 0 to 3 years, and by testing the children themselves. From these data, normative values were derived for 41 language milestones in the first 36 months of life. These values were used to construct the Early Language Milestone Scale (ELM Scale), a brief language assessment tool suitable for use by general pediatricians. Physician use of the ELM Scale in a population of 119 children considered at high risk for the presence of developmental disability yielded 97% sensitivity and 93% specificity for the ELM Scale as a detector of developmentally delayed children, when compared with more formal developmental measures as applied by a clinical psychologist or speech pathologist. Early language milestones are a sensitive indicator of developmental integrity; delayed achievement of early language milestones strongly suggests the presence of a significant underlying developmental disability. The ELM Scale may be adopted as a valid measure of developmental status among children considred at high risk for the presence of developmental disabilities.

Cerebral Palsy↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Test-retest and interobserver reliability of the Early Language Milestone Scale, second edition.

Test-retest and interobserver reliability are reported for the Early Language Milestone Scale, second edition, a language assessment tool for infants and children from birth to 36 months of age. Reliability data are presented for two scoring methods: the pass-fail method that yields a global rating of "pass" or "fail," and the point-scoring method that yields percentile scores. Both scoring methods showed good reliability. The clinical applicability of each scoring system is discussed.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The high-functioning autistic experience: birth to preteen years.

A retrospective chart review of 15 children with high-functioning autism was conducted for the years 1981 through 1992. The purpose of the study was to describe the experience of children with high-functioning autism from infancy through preadolescence. Chart data included clinic staff records, parent letters, academic program records, service records, and comments from the children themselves. The findings of this study support the proposition that children with autism who have an IQ above 70 follow a varied but improving course over time. All 15 children met the DSM-III-R criteria for autism when first evaluated. By middle elementary school, however, none of the children in this study met the DSM-III-R criteria for autism, although they continued to have various language disturbances, social skill deficits, and unique behavioral qualities.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cardiac profile and disruptive behavior in boys at risk for delinquency.

The objective of this study was to examine associations in youth between antisocial behavior and cardiovascular profile. Younger brothers of adjudicated delinquents (N = 120) received a standardized psychiatric assessment and an assessment of three factors often studied in behavioral cardiology research: family history of hypertension, resting blood pressure, and obesity. As a group, relative to population norms, these youth exhibited signs of obesity and elevated blood pressure, with 30% of the sample appearing clinically obese and 24% having a blood pressure above the 90th percentile for national norms in their age cohort. Within the sample, score on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) Delinquency scale correlated with blood pressure (r = .29-.34) and an index of obesity, weight/height3 (r = .20). Further, scores on the CBCL Delinquency, Aggression, and Externalizing scales were elevated in boys with a positive family history of hypertension. Among boys at risk for delinquency, disruptive psychopathology relates to factors often studied in behavioral cardiology research. Relationships between risk factors for ischemic cardiovascular disease and hostile behavior may be manifested with measures of disruptive psychopathology.

Adolescent↗