General development assessment of one to five year old children contaminated by lead

This study investigated, through the “Inventário Portage Operacionalizado”, the general development and the areas in imbalance of 60 children of one to five years, with levels of lead contamination in the blood above 10µg/dl. Of the children in the study, 15 had been evaluated every year:1 to 2, 2 to 3, 3 to 4 and 4 to 5 years with indices of contamination for lead up until 45,40µg/dl. The obtained results showed that general development did not experience important imbalances. The analysis of the specific areas pointed that the children, independent of age, had presented important imbalances in Cognition and Language. The data had shown that the performance in Cognition worsens while Language improves with age. In Language, one observed more children in imbalance with the highest levels of lead contamination compared to that in Cognition. The reduced number of children and the absence of data from a control group made it difficult to confirm the observed results concerning general development following lead contamination, though it is consistent with the research literature.
Keywords: contamination for lead; developmental assessment; Inventário Portage Operacionalizado.