Sixth Year Of Life Research Articles

OBSERVATIONS ON THE VISUAL ACUITY OF CHILDREN DURING THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF LIFE

This paper discusses evidence for the development of ability in the physical, physiological and psychological phases of visual acuity. Visual acuity tests of various kinds were administered to 674 children between the first and sixth year of life and the results suggest that high levels of visual acuity are present at a very early age. The data show no development trend in the age groups beyond the third year of life. Apparent development prior to age three may be an artifact due to the inability of examiners to present comparable tests. Comparison of the present sample and a sample of older children shows the preschool sample to possess a higher level of visual efficiency. This suggests that growth and environment are effective in reducing efficiency earlier in life than was thought heretofore.

THE NAMING OF PRIMARY COLORS BY CHILDREN

ANYAN, WALTER R., JR., and QUILLIAN, WARREN W., II. The Naming of Primary Colors by Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1971, 42, 1629-1632. In the fifth and sixth years of life, the ability of girls to identify primary colors by name is greater than that of boys. Children in the sixth year who attend school outperform those who have not been to school, and girls of this age who have not been to school name colors as well as boys who attend school.

Observations in photosensitive children with and without epilepsy.

The course of convulsive disease in 195 photosensitive children was analysed. Of these, 168 were suffering from cerebral seizures and 27 from various other disorders. Only four of the patients occasionally exhibited photogenic seizures. In all the other cases the cerebral seizures occurred independently of intermittent light stimuli. 1. The clinical picture of photosensitive epilepsy varies widely. Virtually all known forms of seizures and courses of illness may be seen. In the group investigated, febrile and afebrile grand mal attacks predominated. Focal seizures and petit mal followed in third and fourth place respectively. 2. Photosensitive epilepsies are more common in females than in males. 3. The course of photosensitive epilepsy is often highly malignant. This applies especially when focal symptoms are present and when the onset of the disease took place after the fifth year of life. 4. A total of 67 per cent of the patients first suffered seizures before the sixth year of life, i.e. before the age of maximum penetrance of photosensitivity. 5. Investigation of the family histories of the patients indicated that the appearance of the disease in early childhood was affected by additional genetic factors, probably independent of photosensitivity itself. 6. Photosensitivity is to be regarded as a symptom of a gene-dependent functional disorder. The activability of this via optic afferents is markedly age-linked.

Cognitive development and dietary therapy in phenylketonuric children.

Abstract Phenylketonuric children (now four years of age or older) were given intelligence and language tests to ascertain their present levels of cognitive functioning. These intellectual abilities were then evaluated in relation to the children's ages at the time diets low in phenylalanine were begun. The influence of distorting nontreatment factors, such as family level of intelligence and sociologic variation, was ascertained by computation of a multiple-regression equation analysis. Examination of the data revealed a consistent inverse relation between present intellectual ability and age of dietary inception. The children treated within one month after birth scored an average of 33 IQ points higher than those for whom treatment was initiated within their fourth and sixth years of life.

Observations on the seroepidemiology of measles.

Age Distribution of Measles Antibody A survey of 900 serum specimens from residents of Baltimore, representing all age groups, demonstrated that the acquisition of complement fixing antibodies for measles was most rapid in the second to third and sixth years of life (Figure). Between the 10th and 15th years, the incidence of measles complement fixing antibody reached a maximum of 80% to 90%, which incidence persisted for all ages above 15 years. Geometric mean titers of those positive in each age group were strikingly similar. In all our studies, sex differences were not observed. The age distribution of antibodies was in agreement with previous findings determined by historical methods. 1 It is to be noted that sera from adults who did not possess complement fixing antibody were invariably positive when tested by tissue culture neutralization. Why in most cases measles complement fixing antibody was retained for life without diminution of

Interstitial cell tumor of the testis; study of a 5-year-old boy with pseudo-precocious puberty.

THE interstitial cells of the testis, which were first described by Leydig (1), occasionally may give rise to tumors. Eight such cases occurring in childhood have been described in the literature (2–9). In the pediatric age group these tumors occur mostly during the fifth and sixth years of life and apparently are invariably associated with signs of precocious masculinization. The present report describes an additional case of pseudo-precocious puberty due to a testicular interstitial cell tumor in a 5-year-old boy, and gives quantitative and qualitative information concerning his urinary steroid excretion. Report of Case This white boy, aged 5 3/12 years, was admitted for study because of precocious masculinization. Eight months earlier, it had been noted that his voice had become deeper, that he had suddenty begun to gain rapidly in height and weight, and that his penis was becoming larger than normal. At the same time, acne was seen on his face. Seven months before admission, pubic and axillary hair we...

ANOMALOUS FUSION OF THE SCAPHOID AND THE GREATER MULTANGULAR BONE

Congenital fusion of carpal or tarsal bones is a rare anomaly. It may occur independently but usually is associated with synostosis of some of the interphalangeal joints. There are amazingly few English and American papers on the subject. Foreign writers offer varied arguments for their individual theories regarding the cause of this anomaly. I believe that one should accept only the scientific anatomic facts which tend to bear out the theory of arrested or defective development. These anatomic facts show that ossification centers appear in different years for each of the carpal bones except the greater multangular and the scaphoid bone, both of which show ossification centers in the sixth year of life. Because of this embryonic similarity, it seems logical that fusion of bones in the wrist would most probably involve those whose bony growth occurred at identical periods of development. Rochlin 1 in 1928 reported symmetric fusion of

Growth of the Rock Bass, Ambloplites Rupestris (Rafinesque), in Five Lakes of Northeastern Wisconsin

The forms of the growth curves of rock bass from four lakes in northeastern Wisconsin with medium-hard to hard water bore a general resemblance to each other, but differed sharply from the curve for rock bass from a lake with extremely soft water. With the exception of a slight increase in growth in the third year of life the annual increments of length of the rock bass of Nebish Lake (4.0 p.p.m. of bound CO2) tended to decrease consistently beyond the first year. The good first-year growth in length of rock bass of Allequash, Silver, and Trout Lakes (16.8, 15.0, and 18.7 p.p.m., respectively, of bound CO2) was followed by poor growth in the second, third, and fourth years of life. This poor growth was followed in turn by good growth in the fifth and sixth years. The annual increments of length tended to decline beyond the sixth year of life. The growth of rock bass of Muskellunge Lake (10.0 p.p.m. of bound CO2) declined sharply in the second year of life. The annual increments of length were fairly constant in the second to seventh years, inclusive, but declined beyond the seventh year. In each lake the males grew more rapidly than the females. The time of attainment of the legal total length of 7 inches in the different lakes ranged from late in the sixth growing season in Nebish and Trout Lakes to the middle of the eighth growing season in Muskellunge Lake. Rock bass of corresponding length from Allequash, Silver, and Trout Lakes were so nearly of the same weight that one curve described the length-weight relationship of the three stocks. Muskellunge Lake rock bass were considerably lighter than fish of the same length from these three lakes, and Nebish Lake rock bass were somewhat lighter than those from Muskellunge Lake.

Age, Growth, and Production of the Yellow Perch, Perca Flavescens (Mitchill), of Saginaw Bay

Abstract Ages were determined and individual growth histories computed from the examination and measurement of scales from 820 yellow perch collected in 1929 and 1930. Calculated lengths greater than 101 millimeters were computed on the assumption (supported by empirical data) that the ratio of body length to scale length is constant. Lengths below 101 millimeters were determined with the aid of an empirical curve of the body-scale relationship of small fish. Yellow perch of age-groups III and IV (in the fourth and fifth years of life) made up the bulk of the collection (78 per cent). Females grew slightly more rapidly than males, but members of both sexes attained the legal length of 8 1/2 inches during the fourth year of life, just as they were entering on the period of most rapid growth in weight. The greatest growth in weight of both sexes occurred in the sixth year of life. In the combined samples of the two years the females exceeded the males in abundance in the ratio, 296:100. The weight of the Sa...

CONGENITAL BONY TEMPOROMANDIBULAR ANKYLOSIS AND FACIAL HEMIATROPHY

Bony or fibrous ankylosis of the temporomandibular joint is not a clinical curiosity, but a bony ankylosis of this articulation occurring in the new-born associated with maxillary and mandibular hemiatrophy is of sufficient rarity to warrant a report. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Numerous cases of bony intra-articular temporomandibular ankyloses, discovered in the early years of life, have been reported.1In all instances in which the ankylosis was discovered within the first year of life or even in those instances in which it was discovered later without a definite history of postnatal trauma there was a history of a difficult forceps delivery. Langenbach,2prior to 1903, reported a case of bilateral bony ankylosis resulting shortly after a difficult forceps delivery. At the sixth year of life, arthroplasty was performed and a satisfactory functional result was obtained. Ballantyne3cited several cases of hemiatrophy of the mandible and maxilla and

The Treatment of Nonparalytic Squint

Early treatment is essential, whether surgical or nonsurgical, the best results being obtained before the child reaches the sixth year of life. Surgical intervention is discussed, and the method suited to the type of complaint after refraction and treatment for amblyopia have done what they could to bring about full correction. Read by invitation at the Oxford Ophthalmological Congress, July, 1932, as the opening discussion in the symposium on the subject of squint. From the Department of Ophthalmology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Early treatment is essential, whether surgical or nonsurgical, the best results being obtained before the child reaches the sixth year of life. Surgical intervention is discussed, and the method suited to the type of complaint after refraction and treatment for amblyopia have done what they could to bring about full correction. Read by invitation at the Oxford Ophthalmological Congress, July, 1932, as the opening discussion in the symposium on the subject of squint. From the Department of Ophthalmology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.