Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York, USA.
Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York, USA.
Neurotoxicology. 2020 Dec;81:347-352. doi: 10.1016/j.neuro.2020.09.027. Epub 2020 Oct 14.
The Seychelles Child Development Study is a longitudinal cohort study following a group of 779 children exposed prenatally to methyl mercury (MeHg) through a maternal diet high in fish. The cohort has been examined six times beginning in infancy with no consistent evidence of adverse effects. In fact, their performance resembles what would be expected from normal children of comparable ages growing up in western cultures. During a neurodevelopment assessment at 66 months, the children were tested for scholastic achievement using the Woodcock Johnson Tests of Achievement. Their reading scores were depressed relative to US norms while arithmetic scores were within normal limits. This disparity was not evident at 107 months; in fact, reading achievement scores far exceeded expected performance relative to US norms, with over 75% of the cohort obtaining scores at or above the 90th percentile. This study reports a secondary analysis of the scholastic achievement data to test the hypothesis that the results obtained in the primary analysis were probably due to the onset of the primary school curriculum between the first and second testing, and not to inherent cognitive deficits among the children at 66 months. The results suggest that a combination of reading instruction and characteristically consistent letter-sound relationships in Creole, the language spoken at home by the majority of Seychellois families, probably accounted for the high achievement scores at 107 months.
塞舌尔儿童发展研究是一项纵向队列研究，该研究跟踪了一组 779 名儿童，他们的母亲在怀孕期间通过摄入高鱼类饮食而暴露于甲基汞 (MeHg) 中。该队列已经进行了六次检查，从婴儿期开始，没有发现一致的不良影响证据。事实上，他们的表现类似于在西方文化中成长的正常同龄儿童。在 66 个月时的神经发育评估中，使用 Woodcock Johnson 成就测验对儿童进行了学术成就测试。他们的阅读分数相对于美国标准较低，而算术分数在正常范围内。这种差异在 107 个月时并不明显；事实上，阅读成绩远远超过了美国标准的预期表现，超过 75%的队列获得了 90%以上的分数。本研究报告了对学业成就数据的二次分析，以检验以下假设：主要分析中获得的结果可能是由于在第一次和第二次测试之间开始了小学课程，而不是由于 66 个月时儿童存在内在认知缺陷。结果表明，阅读教学和克里奥尔语（塞舌尔大多数家庭在家中使用的语言）中特有的一致字母-声音关系的结合，可能是 107 个月时高成就得分的原因。
