Minor neurodevelopmental disorders in children born to older mothers.
In order to test the hypothesis that rates of motor and perceptual deficits in children tend to increase with maternal age, 65 children aged five and six years born to mothers with a mean age of 39.4 years were compared with 55 age-matched children born to mothers with a mean age of 27.9 years. The hypothesis was supported in that fine-motor problems were five times more common among the children born to older mothers than among those born to younger mothers. Visuo-perceptual dysfunction and attentional deficit signs also were much more common among the children of older mothers. The contribution of various associated factors to these results is discussed.
D000328:Adult; D000649:Amniocentesis; D001288:Attention; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000209:etiology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008423:Maternal Age; D009048:Motor Skills; D009069:Movement Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D019965:Neurocognitive Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D018566:Pregnancy, High-Risk; D011930:Reaction Time; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D014796:Visual Perception