title: Fine motor skills and expressive language: a study with children with congenital hypotyreoidism.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To screen the global development of children with and without congenital hypothyroidism and to investigate the association between fine motor skills and expressive language development in both groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is a prospective study of a cohort of children diagnosed with Congenital Hypothyroidism and monitored in a reference service for congenital hypothyroidism of a public hospital and of children without this disorder. The screening was performed using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development III in the cognitive, gross and fine motor skills, and receptive and expressive language domains. The children's performance was expressed in three categories: competent, and non-competent.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We screened 117 children with average age of 21 months diagnosed with Congenital Hypothyroidism at birth, with the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) level normalized during screening, and 51 children without the condition. The children with Congenital Hypothyroidism presented lower performance in gross and fine motor skills upon comparison between the two groups, and no differences were found in the cognitive and receptive and expressive language domains. The association between fine motor skills and language persisted in the group with Hypothyroidism, demonstrating that the interrelationship of skills is present in all individuals, although this group is two times more likely to present expressive language impairment when fine motor skills are already compromised.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the development process, both skills - motor and expressive language - might be associated and/or dependent on each other in the sample assessed.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Estadual de Campinas - UNICAMP - Campinas (SP), Brasil.
authors.forename: Renata Camargo
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Frezzato
authors.affiliation: Universidade Metodista de Piracicaba - - Piracicaba (SP), Brasil.
authors.forename: Denise Castilho Cabrera
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.affiliation: Universidade Estadual de Campinas - UNICAMP - Campinas (SP), Brasil.
authors.forename: Maura Mikie Fukujima
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.affiliation: Universidade Estadual de Campinas - UNICAMP - Campinas (SP), Brasil.
authors.forename: Michelle Prado Cabral do
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Ouro
authors.affiliation: Universidade Estadual de Campinas - UNICAMP - Campinas (SP), Brasil.
authors.forename: Carolina Taddeo Mendes Dos
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.affiliation: Universidade Estadual de Campinas - UNICAMP - Campinas (SP), Brasil.
authors.forename: Vivian
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Dutra
authors.affiliation: Universidade Estadual de Campinas - UNICAMP - Campinas (SP), Brasil.
authors.forename: Maria Cecília Marconi Pinheiro
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Lima
mesh_terms: D001724:Birth Weight; D001938:Brazil; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003409:Congenital Hypothyroidism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors