J Abnorm Child Psychol
January 2020
A suboptimal intrauterine environment is thought to increase the probability of deviation from the typical neurodevelopmental trajectory, potentially contributing to the etiology of learning disorders. Yet the cumulative influence of individual antenatal risk factors on emergent learning skills has not been sufficiently examined. We sought to determine whether antenatal complications, in aggregate, are a source of variability in preschoolers' kindergarten readiness, and whether specific classes of antenatal risk play a prominent role.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Int Neuropsychol Soc
October 2016
Objectives: A limited body of research is available on the relationships between multiplicity of birth and neuropsychological functioning in preterm children who were conceived in the age of assisted reproductive technology and served by the modern neonatal intensive care unit. Our chief objective was to evaluate whether, after adjustment for sociodemographic factors and perinatal complications, twin birth accounted for a unique portion of developmental outcome variance in children born at-risk in the surfactant era.
Methods: We compared the neuropsychological functioning of 77 twins and 144 singletons born preterm (<34 gestational weeks) and served by William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI.
We studied the associations between early postnatal growth gains and neuropsychological outcome in very preterm-born children. Specifically, we wished to establish whether relationships exist between gains in head circumference (relative to gains in body-weight or length), from birth to hospital discharge, and intellectual, language, or motor, performance at preschool age. We used data from 127 preschoolers, born <33 weeks, all graduates of the William Beaumont Hospital Neonatal Intensive-Care Unit (NICU) in Royal Oak, MI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Compromised postnatal growth is an important risk factor accounting for poorer neuropsychological performance of preterm children during the preschool years, yet its unique contribution to explaining outcome variance within this high risk group has yet to be determined. Therefore, we examined within a large preterm sample (1) the relationships between head growth, measured either at birth or preschool age, and outcome; (2) the relationships of binary versus dimensional head growth measures and performance; and (3) the unique contribution of preschool-age head growth, after adjustment for general physical development (indexed by stature), to variance in neuropsychological functioning.
Method: We evaluated 264 preterm (<36 weeks) preschoolers, without severe handicaps, using cognitive, language, and motor skill measures.