NCJ Number
222656
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 32 Issue: 3 Dated: March 2008 Pages: 415-428
Date Published
March 2008
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study investigated the cognitive dysfunctions that are particular to shaken baby syndrome (SBS) victims once they are school-aged.
Abstract
Results showed that nearly half of victims examined went from an apparently normal state of health to abnormality within a period of between 6 months and 5 years. SBS children showed an intellectual performance that was significantly lower than the control children. The children in the clinical group were in the low-average range, whereas the subjects in the control group were in the average range; children with a history of maltreatment or, more specifically, inflicted brain injury seemed to have poorer intellectual performance. The children in the clinical group did poorly on verbal tests where complex cognitive functions, such as working memory or more specifically the central executive were called upon simultaneously. Overall, the children and the clinical group showed significant weaknesses in comparison with their healthy peers for intellectual performance, working memory, shared attention, reasoning, mental organization/planning, and mental alternation and inhibition, particularly in verbal mode. These skills should be grouped under the term “executive functions,” which are directly linked to the integrity of the frontal lobes. These skills appeared to be deficient in SBS victims to the point of apparently having an impact on our global intellectual performance and their ability to memorize. Data were collected from medical files of 22 child victims of nonaccidental brain injury age 0 through 36 months who were admitted to a pediatric hospital in Québec, Canada; tests were developed and administered to assess the children's main cognitive functions. Tables, references