'Puppet' children. A report on three cases (1965).

The association of mental retardation with abnormal physical development of congenital origin still includes a great variety of conditions whose causation is undetermined and which lack precise classification. The (three) children described here possess such similarities as to justify combining them into a specific group, as yet of unknown cause. Their flat heads, jerky movements, protruding tongues and bouts of laughter give them a superficial resemblance to puppets, an unscientific name but one which may provide for easy identification. It will be seen that all these children possess a number of characteristic features in common and may be summarised as follows: