III. Somatosexual Maturation in Mentally Deficient Children

Summary Four hundred and sixty‐seven patients 9–17 years old in an institution for mentally deficient children have been examined for external signs of puberty. It was found that the majority of these children mature at the normal time. Late maturing is also frequent and is usually associated with mental defect of genetic and prenatal origin. Early maturing and precocious puberty occurred only in children with brain damage dating from birth or later. These patients as a group also matured significantly earlier than children with mental defects from genetic and prenatal origin. Menstruation proved to be less reliable as a sign of maturation in institutionalized mentally defectives.