Acquisition of Early Developmental Milestones and Need for Special Education Services in Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis
Year: 2018
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Children with pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis and pediatric controls were enrolled across 16 pediatric multiple sclerosis centers in the United States and completed questionnaires that addressed time of first unaided walking and acquisition of 2-word phrases. A total of 467 (308 female) cases and 428 (209 female) controls were enrolled. Pediatric multiple sclerosis (n = 467) were not delayed in walking or using 2-word phrases compared to healthy controls (n = 428) (2.2% vs 5.7%, respectively). Children with disease onset before age 11 versus onset at 11 years or after were more likely to need an individualized education plan ( P = .002), reading assistance ( P = .0003), and math assistance ( P = .001). Children with multiple sclerosis onset prior to age 18 are not delayed in meeting the 2 major early developmental milestones but do have a significantly increased use of special services or learning assistance at school. Further research will need to address whether other measures of development (eg, rate of language acquisition or fine motor skills) differ between pediatric multiple sclerosis and controls.
Source: Journal of Child Neurology
Authors: Gregory Aaen, Michael Waltz, Wendy Vargas, Naila Makhani, Jayne Ness, Yolanda Harris, T. Charles Casper, Leslie Benson, Meghan Candee, Tanuja Chitnis, Mark Gorman, Jennifer Graves, Benjamin Greenberg, Timothy Lotze, Soe Mar, Jan-Mendelt Tillema, Mary Rensel, Moses Rodriguez, John Rose, Jennifer Rubin, Teri Schreiner, Amy Waldman, Bianca Weinstock-Guttman, Anita Belman, Emmanuelle Waubant, Lauren Krupp
Institutions: Loma Linda University, Loma Linda University Children's Hospital, University of Utah, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Yale University, Boston Children's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, University of California, San Francisco, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Texas Children's Hospital, Washington University in St. Louis, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Lurie Children's Hospital, University of Colorado Denver, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Jacobs Institute, Stony Brook University, NYU Langone Health
Language: English
Subfield: Pathology and Forensic Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2904375992