DMD may affect mind as well as body

Duchenne's muscular dystrophy (DMD) is known to delay children's development of movement and coordination, but now new research indicates that it may also slow language development.

DMD occurs in roughly 1 of every 3500 male births, according to the report in The Journal of Pediatrics. The disease is thought of as mainly affecting muscles, because children become progressively weaker. However, slowness with words has been described in children and adolescents with the disease.

To investigate, Dr. Veronica J. Hinton, from Columbia University in New York, and colleagues analyzed parents' reports to assess the achievement of 10 common developmental milestones by 130 children with DMD and 59 unaffected siblings. The milestones included smiling, sitting, crawling, standing, walking, speaking, forming sentences, being bowel trained, being bladder trained, and reading.
The team found that the children with DMD were more likely than their siblings to experience delays in both motor and language development. The results also indicate that DMD kids classified as late walkers or late talkers had lower cognition scores than those who walked or talked at the expected age.

"The current findings underscore the need for early intervention services in this population," Hinton and her associates conclude. "The initiation of an early intervention may help limit later learning problems, potentially enhancing the quality of life for a group of children who face adversity in the form of enormous physical and emotional challenges."

SOURCE: The Journal of Pediatrics, May 2007.