Levels of neurocognitive response in the situation of organic brain damage of a child as a clinical and psychological problem

Aim. The article discusses the results of a psychological study of the development of mental functions in children with convulsive paroxysms in the anamnesis. In order to identify common patterns of mental dysontogenesis in children with cerebral organic pathology, the data obtained are compared with the results of other studies.

Methods. As experimental research methods, methods of neuropsychological diagnosis of higher mental functions in children were used (Tsvetkova, 2002), the diagnostic complex “Forecast and prevention of learning problems at school” (Yasyukova, 2002). Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS statistical analysis software.

Results. The results of the study showed that the early onset of seizures in children is combined with impaired auditory perception, short-term speech memory, visual linear thinking and motor awkwardness. The prolonged presence of convulsive paroxysms in the history of a preschool child is associated with the pathology of the development of kinesthetic praxis, as well as speech functions and forms of thinking associated with speech. A significant number of seizures in the history of the disease has a more destructive and total effect on the brain of the child in comparison with the age of onset and the duration of the disease. The data obtained are similar to the results of psychological studies of children with other cerebral organic pathology. Consequently, pathological cerebral processes and conditions of various nature can lead to similar disorders in the development of mental functions, presumably those that are at the time the pathological factor begins in the sensitive period of development. This allows using the concept of “levels of neurocognitive response” in a situation of organic damage to the brain of a child.

Conclusion. The picture of the mental development disorder of children with convulsive paroxysms in the anamnesis is mediated by the age of onset, the duration and massiveness of the disease. Children with various diseases of the central nervous system, presumably, have common patterns of mental dysontogenesis.