Perinatal complications as predictors of developmental disabilities

This study examined the differences between normals and developmentally disabled children in perinatal complications. Orthogonal contrasts showed significant group differences for factors relating to conditions of labor and delivery, and neonatal gestation and birth weight, with developmentally disabled children experiencing more complicated/high-risk pregnancies, labor, and deliveries. A stepwise discriminant analysis indicated that on the basis of perinatal information alone, developmentally disabled children were differentiated from normals with clinical levels of accuracy. The results were discussed in terms of their implications for the identification of high-risk children.