Clinical Characteristics of Developmentally Delayed Children based on Interdisciplinary Evaluation

S W Kim,H R Jeon,J A Kim,J Kim,H J Jung,J.-E Song

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-64875-8

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the clinical characteristics of children suspected to have neurodevelopmental disorders and to present features that could be helpful diagnostic clues at the clinical assessment stage. All children who visited the interdisciplinary clinic for developmental problems from May 2001 to December 2014 were eligible for this study. Medical records of the children were reviewed. A total of 1,877 children were enrolled in this study. Most children were classified into four major diagnostic groups: global developmental delay (GDD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), developmental language disorder (DLD) and motor delay (MD). GDD was the most common (43.9%), and boys were significantly more predominant than girls in all groups. When evaluating the predictive power of numerous risk factors, the probability of GDD was lower than the probability of ASD among boys, while the probability of GDD increased as independent walking age increased. Compared with GDD and DLD, the probability of GDD was increased when there was neonatal history or when the independent walking age was late. Comparison of ASD and DLD showed that the probability of ASD decreased when a maternal history was present, whereas the probability of ASD increased with male gender. To conclude, the present study revealed the clinical features of children with various neurodevelopmental disorders. These results are expected to be helpful for more effectively flagging children with potential neurodevelopmental disorders in the clinical setting.

Highlights

The cause of neurodevelopmental disorders varies, and it is difficult to distinguish between children with neurodevelopmental disorders and typically developing children in early infancy
The total number of subjects was 1,877. Approval to perform this retrospective study was obtained from our Institutional Review Board (IRB) and research ethics committee (National Health Insurance Medical Center, NHIMC 2015-09-016)
When divided into classes according to major phenomenological diagnosis, global developmental delay (GDD) accounted for the largest number, with 824 children (43.9%), followed by autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with 430 (22.9%), developmental language disorder (DLD) with 389 (20.7%) and motor delay (MD) with 72 (3.8%)

Summary

Introduction

The cause of neurodevelopmental disorders varies, and it is difficult to distinguish between children with neurodevelopmental disorders and typically developing children in early infancy. Even if the neurodevelopmental disorder is caused by nonprogressive factors, the clinical phenotype may change over time as the central nervous system matures[5]. Children’s symptoms are different according to their age and severity, and the necessary interventions will vary . The diagnosis of a neurodevelopmental disorder can vary greatly depending on the clinician’s perspective, and the treatment or intervention or social support offered may differ according to diagnosis. The time at which an expert is consulted varies widely from newborn to school-aged[6]. Neurodevelopmental disorders express various features, and the degree of influence by developmental domain varies from case to case. Because of the multi-morbidity feature, attempting to intervene by

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