DEVELOPMENTAL NEURO-EPIDEMIOLOGIC STUDY ON CRITERIA OF NORMAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : A method of selecting "normal controls" by means of simple developmental indices

P(論文)The authors have already presented precise and yet simple criteria of normal children (6-12 years of age) from the neuro-developmental point of view. In this paper, the authors attempt to establish similar criteria for high school students (12-18 years of age) The authors had followed, for the sake of convenience, their own criteria for normal high school students from the neuro-developmental point of view. These criteria were made up of 4 kinds of indices (group IQ., school achievement evaluation, school-health examination, and questionnaire to the parents on the developmental history), hence they are rather complicated. In addition, they have the disadvantage of having to use, as an index, data on the student achievement, etc., which are difficult for outsiders to obtain. The purpose of the present study is to make more convenient criteria which are, nevertheless, almost as precise as the original criteria described above. The authors utilized, as the index of the criteria of normal students, DE-Simplified Motor Function Test (DEMT) for the High School Students and DE-Group Bender Gestalt Test for High School Students (DE-BGT). Both of the two tests have been developed by the authors' research group as the screening tests for neuro-developmental disorders in high school students. It seems to the authors that the screening test for neuro-developmental disorders in students can be the screening test for normal students from the neuro-developmental point of view, if only the screening level is shifted to an appropriate level. The screening level for normal students was placed at the level of 50 percentile of the standardization population (1502 cases) of the DEMT or DE-BGT.,respectively. In the case of screening the normal students according to the above criteria, only 0.1% of the normal students (screened by DEMT) had mental retardation, and 0.3% had epilepsy. Those having cerebral palsy or minimal brain dysfunction were not found among the normal students (screened by DEMT). The results were almost the same for the normal students (screened by DE-BGT).departmental bulletin pape