PSYCHOMOTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF PRESCHOOL CHILDREN; ESPECIALLY THOSE WITH DAMAGED HEARING AND THEIR TREATMENT AND REHABILITATION IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF NEGOTIN

An analysis of a e histories of newly-born children, records from theCounseling Department and reports done by the Commission for ClassifyingChildren Disturbed in Growth within a six-years period in the Municipality ofNegotin has been done just as a classification has been made with respect to gender,age, diagnosis, degree of damage and some other parameters. Out of 2.736 newly bornchildren, 509 or 20,9% have been with some risk factor. The etymologicalfactors are numerous, but, among them, the most prominent are CNS infections,genetic factors, perinatal injuries, prematurity, etc. The children with risk whosemothers are workers or farmers are more numerous; likewise, the child delivery hasan important influence upon injuries during the delivery itself as well as upon laterdisturbances in growth.Regarding the risk children, 196 of them are mentally retarded; they areclassified in the following way: 135 are considered as suffering from slight mentaldamage, 25 from moderate, 10 from more serious and 17 from serious mentaldamages; that is, 104 of male and 92 of female children. About 70% of the registeredchildren are slightly mentally disturbed; more of them are male, beside mentalretardation, a considerable number of children have speech disturbances, hearingdamage or combined problems.In a group of children with damaged hearing that have been tested andexamined concerning the sound location in space, of 4 to 8 years of age, boys havegiven better results; a degree of hearing damage and the rehabilitation period durationare in a positive correlation with the sound localization in space. The nature of thesound source also positively affects the sound localization in space since deepersounds are more perceptible than high ones. The sound spreading gives the bestresults if the sound comes from the "backward' direction.A timely prevention, diagnostics, treatment and rehabilitation of the childrenwith disturbed growth, disturbed speech and hearing damage are considerablyfavorable for the development of cognitive behavior functions, socialization andenabling the children for becoming independent personalities and useful members ofthe social community.