Executive function in 7-9-year-old children born extremely preterm or with extremely low birth weight: effects of biomedical history, age at assessment, and socioeconomic status.

Forty-five children born extremely preterm and/or with extremely low birth weight (ELBW), who were of average intelligence, were assessed at age 7-9 on a raft of measures of executive function (EF) designed to assess inhibition, set shifting, planning, fluency, and working memory. Relative to 45 full-term controls, the preterm/ELBW children showed reliable impairments of inhibition, fluency, and working memory. Among the 7-year olds, the preterm/ELBW group also showed significantly worse set shifting.

A comparison of executive function in very preterm and term infants at 8 months corrected age.

Background: Executive function (EF) emerges in infancy and continues to develop throughout childhood. Executive dysfunction is believed to contribute to learning and attention problems in children at school age. Children born very preterm are more prone to these problems than their full-term peers.

Attentional problems in children born very preterm or with extremely low birth weight at 7-9 years.

Behavioral rating scales and tests of attention were used to study attentional problems in children born very preterm (< or =27 weeks gestation) or with extremely low birth weight (ELBW; < or =1000 g). Psychological tests of attention (viz., Digits and Spatial Span Forward, Visual Attention from the NEPSY, Trail Making Test B, and Stroop Color and Word Test) were administered to 45 children born very preterm/ELBW and 49 full-term controls, aged 7-9 years of age.

Towards a developmental framework of consumer and carer participation in child and adolescent mental health services.

Objective: This paper examines the concept of consumer participation in the context of developmental changes in parent/child relationships and associated differences in the utilization of child and adolescent mental health services.

Method: Existing definitions and characteristics of mental health service delivery for children and young people are examined to answer the question,"Who is the consumer in the context of clinical services for young clients and their parents, and does this change with the child or young person's developmental stage?".

Results: As children, young people and parents utilize services in this area of mental health, the roles of consumer and carer need redefinition to accommodate both young clients and parents as consumers, and parents also as carers.

Developmental patterns from 1 to 4 years of extremely preterm infants who required home oxygen therapy.

Background: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) remains a common complication of prematurity, with those being discharged on home oxygen at particularly high risk of adverse developmental outcomes.

Aims: To compare the developmental patterns, from 1 to 4 years, of extremely preterm infants with BPD discharged from hospital on home oxygen, extremely preterm infants with BPD discharged breathing room air, and extremely preterm infants without BPD.

Subjects: Two hundred and seventy-six infants with a gestational age of <28 weeks or birthweight <1000 g, free from sensory and motor disabilities who were followed up longitudinally to 4 years corrected age.