Objective: Mental Retardation (MR) or Intellectual Disability is one of three chronic and disabling neurological disorders of children and adolescents. Its prevalence is estimated 1-3% of the population. MR is defined as significant sub-average intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior that become detectable before the age of 18. MR may come into view before 5 years as delay in at least two developmental domains which is called Global developmental delay (GDD).The causes of mental retardation can be considered under the titles of prenatal, perinatal and postnatal factors. Prenatal causes account for approximately 60 -80 % of the etiological factors. All patients with GDD / MR should undergo a stepwise diagnostic approach, because a specific diagnosis leads to opportunity for treatment, future planning and genetic counseling. History, physical examination and neurodevelopmental examinations are the most important parts of the approach. Recent advances in cytogenetic investigations and neuroimaging studies have led to recognition of new disorders and improvement of the diagnostic yield.

Fucosidosis is a rare hereditary metabolic disease that is resulted from a deficiency in a-fucosidase enzyme activity. This deficiency produces accumulation of fucose-containing glycosphingolipids, glycoproteins and oligosaccharides in lysosomes of liver, brain and other organs. Phenotypes of this disease are various. Most of the cases have severe form or infantile type that begins in the first year of life with psychomotor retardation, coarse facial features and macroglossia (similar to mucopolysaccharidoses), hepatosplenomegaly and skeletal disorders (dysostosis multiplex). In milder types, clinical signs begin in the second year of life. The first sign is angiokeratomas (similar to Fabry disease). After that, thick skin, puffy eyelids, spastic gait and positive Babinski appear gradually. The case of the present report was a 13-month-old girl who referred due to motor developmental delay. In physical examination, there were developmental delay, growth retardation (weight, height and head circumference<5 percentile of normal), coarse facies, macroglossia, puffy eyelids, skeletal deformities and myelomeningocele in thoracic region. Laboratory studies revealed a deficient enzymatic activity of fucosidase and nomucopolysaccha riduria.

Background: Children with developmental delays are at higher risk of poor health, and lower educational attainment and wellbeing than the normal ones. Objectives: As previous studies had contradictory results regarding the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and child development, the current study aimed at determining this association at the age of 60 months. Methods: The current prospective cohort study was conducted in Shiraz, Iran, from summer 2011 to the end of 2016. The study was conducted on 640 mothers registered in the Fars Birth Cohort study. A checklist comprised of social and economic parts was employed. The children’ s communication development was also assessed using the ages and stages questionnaire for 60-month-old children. In addition, SES was determined using 25 variables. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 19. 0 and partitioning around medoid (PAM) clustering in R 3. 5. 0 software; P value < 0. 05 was considered as the level of signifi cance. Results: The majority of the subjects (79. 1%) were categorized as the moderate level of SES; 106 (16. 56%) children had a delay in at least one developmental domain. The current study results showed that the education level of parents and the occupational status of mothers were signifi cantly associated with delayed communication skills in children (P < 0. 05). delay in communication skills was signifi cantly more prevalent among children whose parents had a low education level (P < 0. 05). After controlling other confounders, the relative risk of delay in communication skills was 3. 7 times higher among children in the moderate level of SES and almost 10 times higher among the ones in the low level of SES. Conclusions: Children brought up in families with low SES had the highest level of delay in communication skills, followed by the ones in families with moderate SES. Considering the importance of communication skills in children socialization, more attention should be paid to SES of the families with preschool kids. It seems quite reasonable if health policymakers put more emphasis on the communication skills of preschool children.

Objective:Central Nervous system (CNS) malformations are one of the most important causes of global developmental delay (GDD) in Children. About one percent of infants with GDD have an inherited metabolic disorder and 3-10 percent ave a chromosomal disorder. This study aimed to survey the frequency of brain structural anomalies and their subtypes among the variety of etiologic factors in children with GDD in our patients.Materials d Methods:This study used the results of neuroimaging studies [unenhanced brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)] of all children who had been referred for evaluation of GDD to outpatient Clinic of Pediatric neurology at Children’s Medical Center affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Science between September 2009 and September 2010.Results:In this study, unenhanced brain MRI was performed on 405 children, of which 80 cases (20 percent) had brain structural anomalies. In 8.7 percent of the cases, previous history of brain structural disorders existed in other children of the family and 20 percent of mothers had inadequate consumption of folate during pregnancy.Conclusion:Based on the results of this study, unenhanced cranial MRI seems to be a fundamental part of evaluation in all children with GDD. Adequate folate consumption as prophylaxis as well as genetic counseling can be worthy for high-risk mothers who have previous history of CNS anomaly or miscarriage to avoid repeated CNS anomalies in their next pregnancies.

A 2. 5-year-old boy born of unrelated parents, without abnormal perinatal history, term, product of normal vaginal delivery, without history of hospitalization, presented with abnormal gait and developmental delay. He started to walk by 18 months and speak just few words. By now, he has normal weight gain. . . .

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and the most common risk factors of motor developmental delay in infants. Materials & Methods: Following ethical approval, a study was carried out on the prevalence and risk factors of infants with motor developmental delay. The first stage was conducted through a cross-sectional study to determine the prevalence of motor developmental delay on 7500 infants and the second stage was an analytic case - control survey to identify the most common risk factors on 140 infants, aged one month to three years with motor developmental delay. Data was collected using a demographic questionnaire, the Parents Evaluation of developmental Status questionnaire, the Denver developmental Screening Test II, a neurological assessment form, and the movement and tone assessment form.Results: The prevalence of motor developmental delay in 7500 infants was 18.7/1000. The most common risk factors in infants with motor developmental delay were prematurity (25.6%), low birth weight (19.2%), neonatal seizures (7.5%), hyaline membrane disease (6.7%), systemic infections of mothers during pregnancy (5.9%), severe neonatal hyperbilirubinemia (5%) in sequence. Motor developmental delay was significantly correlated with consanguinity of parents (p=0.001), prematurity (p=0.046), abnormal head circumference at birth (p=0.038), and low birth weight (p=0.026). Conclusion: The prevalence of motor developmental delay appears to be high and further studies should focus on different preventive strategies, controlling the most common risk factors and emphasizing on early detection and treatment of high risk infants.

Introduction: developmental delay occurs when children do not reach their developmental milestones at the expected time. The main causes of developmental delay are often unknown. Investigation of the prevalence of developmental delay and its effective factors in children from 4 to 12 months old in Pakdasht County was the aim of this study.Methods and Materials: This cross-sectional study was carried out among 210 children from 4 to 12 months old in Pakdasht County in 2014. For collecting the survey data, the Questionnaires of demographic and Ages and Stages (ASQ) have been used. Collected data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, chi-square test and independent t-test by SPSS18 software.Results: The study participants in the study consisted 97 girl (46.2%) and 113 boy (53.8%). The average age of children was 7.96±2.83 months. There were significant relations between developmental delay with child nutrition and the mother's education level (P<0.001).Conclusion: According to the findings, further studies are necessary to understand the factors influencing children's developmental delays.