Pervasive Developmental Disorders in High-Risk Children

E. Aguilar Mental Health Direction, Ministry of Health, Quito, Ecuador

We studied the relationship between high-risk children and pervasive developmental disorders. In 1,105 cases of high-risk children, we found 10 cases of pervasive developmental disorders. One case had only one risk factor—multiple drug abuse in the father. At birth the children presented with psycho-motor retardation, microcephaly, amblyopia, and deafness. In posterior evolution, the children presented with seizures such as West’s syndrome. These children had early stimulation and careful neurologic and psychologic control. In the last control, subjects presented with moderate psychomotor retardation, amblyopia, deafness, disorders in weight, tall, and cephalic perimeter. The developmental coefficient was 33 (brunet lezine test).