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Published on: August 25, 2014
Small for Gestational Age Moderate to Late Preterm Children: A Neuropsychological Follow-up
Garazi Labayru1,2, Jone Aliri3, Andrea Santos4
1Personality, Assessment and Psychological Treatment Department; Psychology Faculty, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain.
Insights
Small for gestational age (SGA) children show persistent neurodevelopmental challenges, evolving from general toddler difficulties to specific attentional and executive function deficits by school age.
Area of Science:
- Neurodevelopmental Pediatrics
- Child Psychology
- Perinatal Medicine
Background:
- Small for gestational age (SGA) is associated with various adverse outcomes.
- The long-term neurodevelopmental trajectory of SGA children requires further elucidation.
- Understanding developmental persistence is crucial for early intervention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate SGA as a neurodevelopmental risk factor for motor learning difficulties (MLP).
- To determine if toddlerhood developmental challenges in SGA children persist into school age.
- To assess the relationship between early difficulties and later school-age performance in SGA children.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study comparing 109 SGA children with 109 adequate for gestational age peers.
- Neurodevelopmental assessments conducted at 2 years and 6.5 years of age.
- Correlation analysis between toddler and school-age performance metrics.
Main Results:
- SGA children demonstrated poorer performance across multiple domains at both 2 and 6.5 years.
- Toddler development in SGA children showed limited correlation with some school-age outcomes.
- A shift from global/unspecific toddler difficulties to domain-specific (attentional/dysexecutive) issues by 6.5 years was observed.
Conclusions:
- SGA confers vulnerability to motor learning difficulties (MLP).
- Neurodevelopmental challenges in SGA children evolve over time, becoming more specific.
- Neuropsychological follow-up is recommended for MLP children to detect emerging difficulties.
Abstract:
Determine whether SGA constitutes a neurodevelopmental risk-factor of MLP, exploring if potential developmental difficulties at toddlerhood persist and are related to school-age performance. 109 SGA and 109 adequate for gestational age MLP children were evaluated at 2 and at 6.5 y.o. SGA children obtained poorer results in several areas at both timepoints; and their development at toddlerhood strongly correlated with only some results at school-age. SGA confers vulnerability to MLP, evolving from global/unspecific difficulties in toddlerhood to a domain-specific profile (attentional/dysexecutive) at 6.5. Findings claim the need for neuropsychological follow-up in MLP to identify emerging difficulties.
