The relationship between intelligence, measured regularly from the ages of 3 to 17 years, and registered criminality was investigated for boys (N = 122) in a birth-to-maturity study. Significant negative correlations appeared at several ages, even for intelligence assessed as early as at the age of 3. The hypothesis was advanced that the early language development of the boys would be negatively associated with future criminality. Information on language development, obtained by applying the Brunet-Lézine psychomotor developmental test for infants, substantiated this hypothesis. Significant correlations with registered criminality appeared for language development at 6, 18, and 24 months. Further support for the hypothesized link was provided by psychologists' ratings of children's verbal behavior and by maternal reports of their child's speech at the ages 3 to 5. The role of early language retardation in contributing to later criminality is discussed.

At conferences held under the auspices of the WHO during the early part of the 1950's [59-621 evidence was given from several quarters of our limited knowledge of the fundamentals of physical and mental development in children and of the various influences that contribute in forming personality. The studies that had previously furnished us with information about these matters were cross-sectional investigations of particular ages or of short developmental periods, or were the results of systematic observation on children with specific features.I n Sweden the pioneers in this field were Wretlind [68], who was the first to weigh school children regularly, and Key [21], who was active a t the end of the 1860's. The latter's classical studies included the height and weight of children in schools of various kinds. In 1925 Hojer [17] published standard values for weight during the first year of life. From the early 1940's onward there appeared a number of crosssectional investigations into body measurements giving Swedish standard tables with mean values and standard deviations for different ages (von Sydow [58], Broman-Dahlberg-Lichtenstein [3] and Karlberg-Perman [20]). Skeletal maturation has been studied by other Swedish physicians, for instance Akerlund [l] and Elgenmark [lo]. In 1959 Mellander, Vahlquist and Mellbin [25] published a clinical, serological and biochemical study on the infancy of children born in northern Sweden. In 1962 Mellbin [26] made a study of health, growth and development in children of Swedish nomad Lapps. With regard to functional and intellectual development, contributions have been made by the following Swedish investigators, among others: Gedda [14], Hellstrom [15], Klackenberg [22], Sandels [40], Uhlin [63] and Wallgren [65].Many aspects of children's health, body structure, intelligence and personality can be studied satisfactorily, and even preferably by cross-sectional investigations. When studying growth and the developmental process itself, however, a longitudinal prospective approach is essential.

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