This is a rarely occurring syndrome of dissociated motor development simulating cerebral palsy where fine motor development milestones are normal but where gross motor skills are markedly delayed. Other neurological signs are absent. Children are characterised by hypotonia, a posture of hip flexion in vertical suspension and delayed gross motor milestones. What is of interest in the present context is that they are also characterised by irritability, frequent temper tantrums and stereotyped movements. The latter include fluttering of the fingers as well as rapid circular movements of the feet and toes.
Cognitive development is reported as normal.
A case seen in Melbourne was a girl aged 8 years who had been first diagnosed with dissociation of maturation syndrome at 2 years. Her CARS score was 34 characterised by lack of affect, resistance to change of routine and obsessive interest in visual and olfactory stimuli. She was fearful of approaches by other children but had little appreciation of dangerous things in her environment. Her symbolic play was normal and she was able to express complex ideas with good reasoning ability. The child presented as displaying a number of autistic features in behaviour but with relatively intact cognitive functions, other than the verbal-performance discrepancy, and with the characteristic motor problems reported for the syndrome.