Little information exists regarding the long term cognitive, social and psychological outcomes of children diagnosed as with specific learning disabilities. We propose to complete a 25-year prospective follow-up investigation of this problem using children who were part of the Providence Rhode 151 and cohort of the National Collaborative Perinatal Project in the 1960's. We will select a sample of 454 children of normal intelligence and with objectively documented signs of cognitive deficits at age seven and a comparison group of age, sex, SES and IQ matched subjects from the Providence cohort of the national Collaborative Perinatal Project. (NCPP). Using follow-up methods tested and refined through pilot work and two current studies, we will be able to contact 85% of these subjects (now ages 28-34) and study 90% of those contacted with a three to four hour assessment including social, psychological and neuropsychological measures. We have selected a battery of neuropsychological measures of verbal functions abstractions, memory, visual-perceptual functions and motor abilities that will permit us to elicit a number of expected forms of learning disorders. The domains of social functioning that our structured interview will address include academic achievement, school completion, vocational attainment, antisocial behavior, substance use and psychological adjustment. In addition, we will record for this sample, Log linear, logistic regression and discriminant analysis methods will be applied to assess the associations between early cognitive measures, school remediation, socioeconomic factors and adult functioning. When added to the large set of developmental data which currently exists for these subjects, the proposed project will provide an excellent resource for furthering our understanding of the permanence and long-term social and psychological consequences of early learning disabilities.
| Goodwin, Renee D; Buka, Stephen L (2008) Childhood respiratory disease and the risk of anxiety disorder and major depression in adulthood. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 162:774-80 |
