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Preschool performance of children with normal intelligence who were very low-birth-weight infants
Insights
Very low-birth-weight infants, despite normal intelligence, show deficits in spatial relations and visual-motor integration. Early intervention can address these developmental challenges in school-aged children.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Pediatrics
- Neonatal Follow-up Studies
- Child Psychology
Background:
- Modern neonatal intensive care enables school-age survival for very low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants.
- Assessing long-term school performance in VLBW survivors is crucial for understanding developmental outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the school performance of VLBW children at age 5 years.
- To identify specific cognitive and developmental areas where VLBW children may differ from full-term peers.
Main Methods:
- Study included 80 VLBW infants (birth weight < 1,500g, gestational age 30 weeks) assessed at age 5.
- A cohort of 46 VLBW singletons with normal IQ and neurological status were matched with full-term controls.
- Assessments included IQ tests (Stanford-Binet, Slosson), psycho-educational batteries (Woodcock-Johnson), and visual-motor integration tests (Beery VMI).
Main Results:
- No significant IQ differences were observed between VLBW children and controls.
- VLBW children performed significantly worse on the Spatial Relations subtest and the Visual-Motor Integration test.
- Similar perceptual and visual-motor difficulties were noted in VLBW twins compared to controls.
Conclusions:
- VLBW children, even without neurological impairment or intellectual deficits, exhibit specific challenges in spatial relations and visual-motor skills.
- Early identification and intervention for these perceptual and visual-motor problems are essential.
- Addressing these issues can prevent the exacerbation of learning difficulties in VLBW survivors.
Abstract:
Children who were very low-birth-weight infants (less than 1,500 g), beneficiaries of modern neonatal intensive care, are now of school age. To evaluate their school performance 80 children born in 1976 who had very low-birth-weight (mean birth weight 1.2 kg, mean gestational age 30 weeks) were examined at age 5 years. Sixty-five children were neurologically intact and had normal IQ (greater than or equal to 85) on the Stanford-Binet; five children were neurologically abnormal and ten had IQ below 85. Of the 65 children with normal intelligence and no neurologic impairments, 46 were single births and enrolled in preschool. These 46 children were matched by race, sex, and family background with classmate control children who had been born at full term. Outcome measurements included the Slosson Intelligence Test, the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery (including subscales of Picture Vocabulary, Spatial Relations, Memory for Sentences, Visual Auditory Learning, Quantitative Concepts, and Blending) and the Beery Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration. No significant differences in IQ were found between children who were very low-birth-weight infants and control children; however, children who were very low-birth-weight infants performed significantly less well on the Spatial Relations subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson and on the Visual-Motor Integration test. Similar results were found for nine sets of twins and their control children. Recognition of these perceptual and visual-motor problems may permit appropriate early remedial intervention and prevent the compounding of these difficulties.