Development of Preschool and Academic Skills in Children Born Very Preterm

Objective To examine performance in preschool and academic skills in very preterm (gestational age ≤30 weeks) and term-born comparison children aged 4 to 12 years. Study design Very preterm children (n = 200; mean age, 8.2 ± 2.5 years) born between 1996 and 2004 were compared with 230 term-born chil...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of pediatrics 2011, Vol.158 (1), p.15-20
Main Authors: Aarnoudse-Moens, Cornelieke Sandrine Hanan, MSc, Oosterlaan, Jaap, PhD, Duivenvoorden, Hugo Joseph, PhD, van Goudoever, Johannes Bernard, MD, PhD, Weisglas-Kuperus, Nynke, MD, PhD
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
analysis of variance
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child Development
Child, Preschool
children
Diseases of mother, fetus and pregnancy
Educational Status
Female
General aspects
gestational age
Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Infant, Premature
Learning
Male
Medical sciences
monitoring
Pediatrics
peers
Pregnancy. Fetus. Placenta
premature birth
reading
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Summary:Objective To examine performance in preschool and academic skills in very preterm (gestational age ≤30 weeks) and term-born comparison children aged 4 to 12 years. Study design Very preterm children (n = 200; mean age, 8.2 ± 2.5 years) born between 1996 and 2004 were compared with 230 term-born children (mean age, 8.3 ± 2.3). The Dutch National Pupil Monitoring System was used to measure preschool numerical reasoning and early linguistics, and primary school simple and complex word reading, reading comprehension, spelling, and mathematics/arithmetic. With univariate analyses of variance, we assessed the effects of preterm birth on performance across grades and on grade retention. Results In preschool, very preterm children performed comparably with term-born children in early linguistics, but perform more poorly (0.7 standard deviation [SD]) in numerical reasoning skills. In primary school, very preterm children scored 0.3 SD lower in complex word reading and 0.6 SD lower in mathematics/arithmetic, but performed comparably with peers in reading comprehension and spelling. They had a higher grade repeat rate (25.5%), although grade repeat did not improve their academic skills. Conclusions Very preterm children do well in early linguistics, reading comprehension, and spelling, but have clinically significant deficits in numerical reasoning skills and mathematics/arithmetic, which persist with time.
ISSN:0022-3476
1097-6833
DOI:10.1016/j.jpeds.2010.06.052