Developmental dyspraxia-dysgnosia as a cause of congenital children's clumsiness.

In order to ascertain the cause of children's clumsiness in minor brain disturbances, 44 children aged 9-11 years with low birth weight and 55 children aged 7-12 years from a special class for hyperactive children were examined by especially developed tests for praxia and gnosia. Conventional neurological examination was in all of them within normal limits; some of them presented, however, soft signs in special tets for cerebellar functions, proving that there was a group of minor cerebellar disorder. But in the majority of these children special tests revealed a dyspraxia and/or dysgnosia. This was in 81.6% for hyperactive children and 71.4% for children with low birth weight. In this group was pure dyspraxia quite often present (33%). In a control group of 72 children was dyspraxia-dysgnosia only in 47.4% and had a tendency to disappear with age.