Grant amount：\4940000 （ Direct Cost: \3800000 、 Indirect Cost：\1140000 ）

We investigated the clumsiness of children with developmental disorder from their operations of a scissor and a compass. We analyzed the relationship among the kinematic characteristics of fingers identified by utilizing 3-axis and 2-axis pressure sensors, the results of motion analysis, and intellectual characteristics measured by neuropsychological tests. The subjects who showed low muscle tone and reduced coordination of fingers could not put properly directed pressure on the loop of the scissor and also excessive motions were observed at their shoulders and forearms. However, the subjects whose clumsiness was associated with immaturity of visual space perception did not express the characteristics. Excessive pressures on the top of the desk and to the horizontal direction were observed for all subjects when they used the compass. We developed a self-help device with which the subject could control the pressure on the loop of the scissor. We confirmed the effect with two subjects.

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Authorship：Principal investigator  Grant type：Competitive

Grant amount：\5590000 （ Direct Cost: \4300000 、 Indirect Cost：\1290000 ）

We developed a new handwriting assessment system using a tablet PC that could record the pen's trajectories and pressures during handwriting tasks. We examined the relationship between handwriting (drawing or writing) skills, visual function, and handwriting performance. For drawing skills, the standard values for normal boys (Grades 2-6) were calculated from two drawing tasks. For writing legibility, the standard values were calculated for the evaluation index using size, space, and alignment of characters. The relationship between drawing skills, visual function, and handwriting performance was as follows. For eye movement, children with a long outside stroke length tended to be different from children with no outside stroke length as well as from adults. Regarding the tracing of body movements for handwriting performance, children with a long outside stroke length were longer compared to children with no outside stroke length as well as to adults.

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Grant amount：\41990000 （ Direct Cost: \32300000 、 Indirect Cost：\9690000 ）

514 pregnant women were recruited in one obstetric hospital in Sapporo. We investigated the correlation of prenatal exposures to PCBs/PCDDs/PCDFs, PFOS and PFOA with child growth, neurodevelopment, and allergy in next generation until school age. A follow-up questionnaire was used at 18, 42, and 84 months of age to obtain relevant information including infant symptoms and lifestyle factors. The Bayley Scale of Infant Development second edition at age of 6 and 18 months, and the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children and the Child Behavior Checklist at age 42 to 43, 84 months were employed to collect information on child behavior. At age of 84 months the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children was used to assess the effects of environmental chemicals on cognitive ability. The levels of PCBs/PCDDs/PCDFs and PFOS/PFOA in maternal blood were analyzed by a high-resolution gas chromatography/high-resolution mass spectrometer and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry respectively.

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Grant amount：\4550000 （ Direct Cost: \3500000 、 Indirect Cost：\1050000 ）

Genetic susceptibility to tobacco smoke might have relation to adverse birth outcomes. To estimate the effects of maternal smoking during pregnancy and genetic polymorphisms on infant neurodevelopment, we conducted a prospective birth cohort study of women who delivered singleton live births. Multiple linear regression models were used to estimate the association maternal smoking and certain polymorphisms with cognitive deficits at 6, 18 and 42 months of age. There was no correlation between any of the genotypes and adverse effects.

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Grant amount：\4550000 （ Direct Cost: \3500000 、 Indirect Cost：\1050000 ）

Inattention is one of the common symptoms in developmental disorders such as Learning Disabilities(LD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD). It is known that the inattention develops symptoms of hyperactiveness, attention deficit and restlessness. Although the assessment of these symptoms is important from the viewpoints of treatment of patients and adjustment of patients' living environment, the effective evaluation methods are not established yet. We devised some reaction time tasks, in which multi-sensory stimuli were employed, to evaluate symptoms of inattention adequately. In this research, we investigated the relationships between each tasks and the symptoms of inattention. We also studied whether or not the changes in the symptoms after giving six months intervention of Occupational Therapy to the patients cause the changes in the reactions times of the tasks. As a result, it was suggested that the spatiality in presenting visual stimuli have major influence on the inattention of people with developmental disorders, and factors of spatial allocation and displacement in attention related to patients' daily behavioral characteristics. In addition, visual perceptual noises of displaying distractors behind the target stimulus had no influence on the reaction time when the position of appearing the target was fixed but had inference when the position changed spatially. From this result, we considered that the visual perceptual noises could have an influence in attention when spatial factor in attention is necessary to conduct the task. We confirmed that this characteristic was improved by having Occupational Therapy treatment, and patients having the improvement of symptoms of inattention after six months intervention of Occupational Therapy could have faster reaction times to the task related to the characteristic than those measured before having the intervention.

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Authorship：Principal investigator  Grant type：Competitive

Grant amount：\3120000 （ Direct Cost: \2400000 、 Indirect Cost：\720000 ）

The study aims to show the characteristics of a handwriting assessed by new system which the authors have developed, to record changes in pen velocity and pen pressure during conducting handwriting tasks. As the results, developmental characteristics of stray distance, average of the pen velocity, and average of pen pressure in school age children were shown. In adults group, during drawing a line along with one side of the triangle, the pen velocity had a regularity which increased from the beginning and decreased from about the middle of the line. Regarding the change in pen pressure during the handwriting tasks, it increased suddenly from the beginning. Then it continued increasing gently and decreased suddenly just before completion of the task.On the other hand, as for the change in pen velocity and pen pressure during the handwriting tasks obtained from 7 years old children group, there were few child who showed a pattern similar to adults. Clumsy children group has significantly longer stray distance and average of pen velocity than 7 years old children group. However, 7 years old child group has more a regularity of pen velocity than clumsy children group

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Grant amount：\37310000 （ Direct Cost: \28700000 、 Indirect Cost：\8610000 ）

The prospective birth cohort with one obstetric hospital in Sapporo City has been conducted to investigate the association between child growth, neuro-development, and allergy, and low-level exposure to environmental chemicals during pregnancy, infancy and up to school age. A follow-up questionnaire was used at 18, 42, and 84 months of age to obtain relevant information including allergy prevalence, dietary habits, and smoking history of mother and the partner. The levels of PCDDs/PCDFs and PCBs in maternal blood and breast milk were measured using a high-resolution gas chromatography/high-resolution mass spectrometer (HRGC/HRMS). PFOS and PFOA levels in maternal blood were analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). We assessed the influence of low level intrauterine exposure of toxic chemicals on childhood neurodevelopment at 6, 18 and 42 months of age using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development second edition (BSID-II) and Japanese version of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC). The Japanese version of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was used to collect information on child behavior at age 43 months.

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