Mary N. Haslum

Educational attainment of 10-year-old children with treated and untreated visual defects

Children with visual defects who took part in a 10‐year survey were compared with their peers on measures of intelligence, reading, mathematics and sporting ability. Results are consistent with earlier findings of increased intelligence among children with myopia and slightly reduced intelligence among children with ambylopia. Those with other visual defects had normal intelligence scores. Once intelligence had been taken into account, only children with mild hypermetropia were underachieving at reading. Those with severe myopia were reading better than expected. None of the children could be shown to be over‐ or underachieving at maths, any variation being due to intelligence. The mothers of children with visual defects perceived them to be less able at sport.

Cognitive outcomes of multiple mild head injuries in children.

This study assessed cumulative effects of multiple mild head injuries on cognitive functioning in children. Subjects included 1586 children with one mild head injury, 278 with two, and 51 with three or more head injuries between birth and age 10 years and controls without head injuries matched on gender and total number of injuries. The number of head injuries and injuries not to the head was associated with decreasing performance on measures of intelligence (p < .01), reading (p < .01), and math (p - .02). There was no interaction between case-control status and number of injuries, indicating a similar relationship between cognitive outcomes and number of injuries in head-injured cases and controls. After adjustment for covariates, the relationship between number of injuries and cognitive outcomes became nonsignificant. This study suggests that cognitive deficits associated with multiple mild head injury are due to social and personal factors related to multiple injuries and not to specific damage to the head. J Dev Behav Pediatr 17:143–148, 1996. Index terms: head injuries, cognition, achievement, child, social environment.

Dyslexia: Anomaly or Normal Variation?.

This paper is an interim report on a large-scale survey. The background to the authors’ research into dyslexia is briefly outlined. Next comes an explication of the contrast between “anomaly” and “normal variation.” Some details are then provided of a survey of 12,905 children, age ten, who were given a variety of educational and cognitive tests relevant to a diagnosis of dyslexia. It is shown that the resultant distributions of scores are incompatible with the hypothesis of normal variation. The counter-hypothesis, viz. that dyslexia involves some kind of anomaly, has, therefore, to that extent resisted refutation.

Contributory factors to the spread of contamination in a model kitchen

Artificial contamination of chicken pieces with bioluminescent E. coli DH5a (pLITE 27) was used to examine the relationship between food hygiene interventions and the extent of contamination in a model kitchen. Analysis showed that, during the preparation of chicken casserole, bacteria were widely disseminated throughout the kitchen and equipment used. Food hygiene interventions were shown to reduce the extent of contamination. Demonstrates that effective cleaning and hand washing are important in preventing cross‐contamination in the domestic kitchen.

Does fetal heart rate predict subsequent heart rate in childhood

An investigation to determine whether there is any relationship between extremes of fetal heart rate during labour and subsequent heart rate at the age of 10 was carried out using data from the 1970 cohort of British Births. In 11,000 nationally representative children it was found that low fetal heart rate (below 120 beats/min) was associated with a heart rate at age 10 which was significantly lower than in those children whose fetal heart rate had remained between 120 and 160 beats/min (P less than 0.01). This relationship could not be explained by fetal asphyxiation, maternal antenatal hypotension or the method of pain relief during labour. There was no equivalent relationship with high fetal heart rate during labour. This could imply that some fetuses with low heart rates are not exhibiting fetal distress but have an inherent tendency to relatively slow heart rates.

Recent Findings from the 1970 Child Health and Education Study: Preliminary Communication

The progress is described of the longtudinal cohort study based on all children born in England, Scotland and Wales in one week of April 1970. The children and their mothers have been surveyed at birth, at five, and recently, at ten. Analyses of the data presented include the finding of improved intellectual outcome in children who had been immunized against pertussis, compared with poor intellectual outcome in children who had had hospital admissions for the disease itself. Preliminary data collected at 10 show that routine hearing and vision testing during the childs school life fell short of recommended standards. The major aim of the 10-year-old contact, however, is to establish details of the national prevalence and pathogenesis of disability. The identification of disability uses a life skills questionnaire, medical history and examination.

Ethnicity: the experience of socio-economic disadvantage and educational attainment

Abstract The analysis concerns the way in which socio‐economic disadvantage affects the educational performance of children from different ethnic groups. Nationally representative data was provided by the 10 year follow‐up survey of the Child Health and Education Study. The effects of nine indicators of socio‐economic disadvantage on the intelligence, and reading test scores of United Kingdom, West Indian and Asian children were investigated. Differences were found between these groups of children in terms of the relationships between the disadvantage indicators and the test scores. The most striking result was the lack of sensitivity of the West Indian childrens test scores to socio‐economic conditions. Attention was focused on this phenomenon, the analysis being repeated using United Kingdom and Asian children who had been matched with the West Indian children on the basis of intelligence. Again it was found that, unlike Asian and United Kingdom children, the test scores of West Indian children did not...

Weight-for-height in two national cohorts with particular reference to 10-year-old children

The idea of representing obesity or degree of malnutrition using a weight-for-height power index has existed for many years and several authors believe that such an index should be uncorrelated with height. Data from the 1958 National Child Development Study and the 1970 Child Health and Education Study have therefore been used to determine the values of the constant k which lead to the weight-for-height power index weight/[height]k being uncorrelated with height for specific age groups. Different values of k were needed both for the various age groups, and for the two sexes. For boys and girls respectively, the values of k needed at age 7 years were 2.02 and 2.12, at age 10 the values were 2.53 and 2.58, at age 11, 2.53 and 2.50 and at age 16, 2.42 and 1.71. Different values were also needed for West Indians and Asians and pubertal and pre-pubertal children. The relationships between this power index and other measurements of weight-for-height (including weight/height; weight/[height]2--the Quetelet index; weight/[height]3--the Ponderal index; relative weight for height, and standardized weight for height), the examining doctors assessment of obesity and weight and height themselves were investigated for 10-year-old children born in 1970 to determine which of them could be thought of as best at estimating obesity. We found that there was little to choose between the index which was uncorrelated with height (using derived values of the power), and the Quetelet index.

A Cohort Study of Special Educational Needs in Ten-Year-Olds in the United Kingdom

One of the advantages of looking at a national cohort of children (a total population) is that it gives an overall perspective of the problems children experience. In addition, the prevalence figures it can provide of their difficulties is perhaps representative of other populations of children of similar ages.