Cerebral paisy is a non-progressive disorder associated with brain in jury, detect, or dlsease, of early onset. Emphasis IS placed on the more easily observable motor deficits, with any underlying sensory deficits often being overlooked. Existing sensory assessments have either been standardized on an adult population or for a paediatric population without significant neuromotor impalrment. Thus, there is a need to formulate a standardized sensory assessment battery that may be used to evaluate physically handicapped children. A review of the literature hlghlights the necessity to evaluate the presence and extent of sensory dysfunction in school-age hemipleglc children, us mg a standardlzed clinical sensory assessment battery, as weil as somatosensory evoked potentials.A relJable sensory battery, which asses ses 5 sensory modalltl8s, was formulated and normative data for school-age chlldren was derived. Sensory function was evaluated in 9 hemiplegic children (4-19 years) and 18 healthy age-matched controls. Significant bilateral sensory deficits were documented in hemiplegic childr9n. Thus a sensory assessment should be an integral part of the evaluation of a child with hemiplegia .

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Variation in animal material technology, such as tool use and nest construction, is thought to be caused, in part, by differences in the early-life socio-ecological environment—that is, who and what is around—but this developmental hypothesis remains unconfirmed. We used a tightly controlled developmental paradigm to determine whether adult and/or raw-material access in early life shape first-time nest construction in laboratory-bred zebra finches Taeniopygia guttata at sexual maturity. We found that juvenile access to both an unrelated adult and raw material of one color led to a majority preference (75%) by novice builders for this color of material over that for either natal-nest or novel-colored material, whereas a lack of juvenile access to both an unrelated adult and raw material led to a 4- and nearly 3-fold reduction in the speed at which novice builders initiated and completed nest construction, respectively. Contrary to expectation, neither the amount of time juveniles nor their adult groupmate spent handling the raw material appear to drive these early-life effects on zebra finches’ first-time nest construction, suggesting that adult presence might be sufficient to drive the development of animal material technology. Together these data show that the juvenile socio-ecological environment can trigger variation in at least two critical aspects of animal material technology (material preference and construction speed), revealing a potentially powerful developmental window for technological advancement. Thus, to understand selection on animal material technology, the early-life environment must be considered.

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