Purposes: To evaluate emotional and behavioral outcomes in adolescents who in early childhood were treated for mild developmental deficits; and to identify predictive factors in early childhood, for future emotional and social competence abnormalities.
Methods: The records of children referred to Hanna Khoushi Child Development Center in Haifa for mild developmental delay were reviewed. Parents and adolescents were requested to complete the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Youth Self-Report (YSR) 12 to 16 years after discharge from the Child Development Center. Analysis of the two questionnaires and identification of predictive variables in early childhood for emotional problems and social competence difficulties during adolescence were performed, using ANOVA Student's T-test, Chi-square, and multiple regression.
Results: The most frequent developmental diagnoses on admission to the Child Development Center were mild motor (27.3%) or language (23.2%) deficits. Of the treated children, 53.4% were discharged without any developmental deficit. All CBCL and YSR T-scores were within the nonpsychopathology range. No notable differences were found between the study scores and the scores regarding typical Israeli and American youths. Significant differences were, however, observed in self-perception of internalizing emotional problems between male and female adolescents: T-scores of 51.9 +/- 8.0 vs. 47.4 +/- 10.8, respectively (p < .05). Motor and language deficits were associated with lower general competence than general developmental delay and emotional developmental disturbances (T-scores: 47.9 vs. 49.1 and 50.9, p< .05). Admission to the Center after the age of 18 months was associated with higher T-scores for general as well as externalizing problems when compared with scores associated with admission before the age of 18 months (by 5.75 points for both parameters, p < .001).
Conclusion: The perception of parents and children with minor developmental deficits observed in early childhood regarding their emotional and social competence during adolescence is similar to typical youths.