Visual perception and visual-motor integration in very preterm and/or very low birth weight children: a meta-analysis

A range of neurobehavioral impairments, including impaired visual perception and visual-motor integration, are found in very preterm born children, but reported findings show great variability. We aimed to aggregate the existing literature using meta-analysis, in order to provide robust estimates of the effect of very preterm birth on visual perceptive and visual-motor integration abilities. Very preterm born children showed deficits in visual-spatial abilities (medium to large effect sizes) but not in visual closure perception. Tests reporting broad visual perceptive indices showed inconclusive results. In addition, impaired visual-motor integration was found (medium effect size), particularly in boys compared to girls. The observed visual-spatial and visual-motor integration deficits may arise from affected occipital-parietal-frontal neural circuitries.