Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 29, 2026

Assessing Working Memory in Children: The Comprehensive Assessment Battery for Children – Working Memory (CABC-WM)
Published on: June 12, 2017
The profile of very preterm children on academic achievement. A cross-population comparison with children with
Annalisa Guarini1, Paola Bonifacci1, Valentina Tobia2
1Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Italy.
Background:
Very preterm (VPT) children showed delays in reading, spelling and maths, but their academic achievement profile is not clearly understood.
Aims:
VPT children were compared with children with specific learning disorders (SLD) and typically developing (TD) children on academic achievement, considering cognitive and linguistic phenotypic markers. A learning profile analysis was also performed.
Methods:
We included 170 10-year old monolingual Italian-speaking children (37 VPT, 28 SLD, 105 TD) assessing cognitive, linguistic and academic skills.
Results:
On academic achievements VPT children fell behind TD peers in some reading (text speed, comprehension), spelling (non-word), and math (number knowledge, written calculations and problem-solving) tasks. SLD children underperformed in all academic tasks with respect to VPT and TD peers. Concerning cognitive and linguistic phenotypic markers, compared to TD peers, VPT children showed lower scores in verbal IQ and phonological fluency, SLD children in phonological processing and rapid automatized naming. VPT children showed a higher rate of at-risk performance in reading compared to TD group, but a minor percentage of impaired profiles and comorbidity among learning areas compared to SLD group.
Conclusions And Implications:
The academic achievement profile of VPT children shows persistent delays, but it differs to that of SLD children, since delays are less widespread and severe, and differences were found in phenotypic markers and comorbidity. Follow-up programs and effective interventions are needed for VPT children.
Related Concept Videos
Drug Dosing: Infants and Children
Profile Leveling and Cross Sections
Drug Dissolution: Requirements and Profile Comparison
The Sense of Self: Reflected Self-Appraisal and Social Comparison
Cross-Sectional Research
Crossing Over
The homologous pairs of sister chromosomes—one from the maternal and one from the paternal genome—then begin to align alongside each other lengthwise, matching corresponding DNA positions in a process...

