Endocrine studies in infants and children: II. Time of onset of teething, walking, and talking in endocrine disorders: Its relationship to intelligence in endocrine and nonendocrine conditions

Abstract

T HE relat ive lack of the stat ist ical approach to tile s tudy of endocrine conditions in children p rompted us to analyze 1,000 cases at our disposal f rom the viewpoints of developmental rate, mental status, clinical findings, chemistry of blood and urine, metabolism, and x-ray studies of the bones. These various phases will be discussed in separate papers. The methods of procedure and the diagnostic cri teria of endocrine conditions have already been described. The present paper reports the findings of a statist ical s tudy of the time of onset o.f teething, walking, and talking. In 570 patients the ease history presented definite data on at least two of tile following developmental criteria : the age at which the first deciduous to.oth was erupted, the age at which unaided walking began, and the age at which the first words of the child's vocabulary were spoken. We are assuming the vat idi ty of evidence secured by good ease histories obtained from the average mother. The 570 children are dis tr ibuted as follows: 369 present evidence of some endocrine disorder, and 201 manifest some degree of mental re ta rda t ion wi thout any evidence of endocrine disturbance. The endocrine group is in tu rn almost equally subdivided into those with normal intelligence and those with mental re tardat ion. The clinical entities represented i~ the endocrine group are childhood myxedema (which we. p re fe r to the reign sporadic cretinism), hypothyroidism, adiposogenital dys t rophy in boys, t hy rop i tu i t a ry obesity in girls, and anter ior p i tu i ta ry deficiency of growth. In the nonendocrine mental re ta rda t ion are included those due to mongolism, encephalitis, eongenital syphilis, spastic paraplegia, bir th injury, head in ju ry in infancy or childhood, epilepsy, and an unclassified group. The mental status was determined by direct evidence on the basis of psychometr ic examinations or by indirect evidence as presented by case histories, parenta l information, and reports f rom public and parochial schools in those instances where the children were of school age.