Related Experiment Videos
Parents' ratings of everyday cognitive abilities in very low birth weight children
D Dewey1, S G Crawford, D E Creighton
1Behavioural Research Unit, Alberta Children's Hospital, Calgary Alberta Canada.
Insights
Parents
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Pediatric Neurodevelopment
Background:
- Very low birth weight (VLBW) children may face developmental challenges.
- Assessing cognitive and motor skills is crucial for early intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare parents' ratings of daily functioning with psychometric assessments in VLBW children.
- To identify discrepancies between parental perception and objective measures.
Main Methods:
- Compared parent ratings with psychometric test results for VLBW and normal birth weight (NBW) children.
- Included "suspect" and "normally developing" VLBW groups and NBW peers at age 3.
Main Results:
- Parents of "suspect" VLBW children accurately reported impairments in memory, language, and motor skills.
- Parents identified more cognitive and language difficulties than psychometric tests.
- Parents underestimated coordination problems compared to psychometric assessments.
Conclusions:
- Parental ratings and psychometric measures offer complementary insights into child development.
- Discrepancies highlight the need for comprehensive developmental evaluations.
- Understanding these differences can improve early identification and support for VLBW children.
Abstract:
Parents' ratings of everyday cognitive functioning in very low birth weight (VLBW) children free of sensorineural impairments and normal birth weight (NBW) children were compared with the children's actual performance on psychometric measures of cognitive and motor skills. Subjects included 19 VLBW children identified at age 3 years as "suspect" for developmental problems, 19 VLBW children identified at age 3 years as "developing normally," and 30 NBW full-term peers. Results indicated that parents of the suspect VLBW group rated their children as having significant impairments in memory, language, cognitive, and motor skills, findings which were consistent with the results of concurrent psychometric assessments. When compared with psychometric test results, parents identified more children as displaying difficulties in memory, language, and cognitive skills, but fewer children with coordination difficulties. These findings suggest that the parents' ratings and the psychometric measures may be assessing somewhat different aspects of the children's functioning.