Visual perceptual skills in children born with very low birth weights.

Introduction: A disproportionate number of very low birth weight (VLBW; < or =1500 g) children require special education services and have school-related problems even when they are free from major disabilities and have average intelligence quotient scores. Visual-perceptual problems have been suggested as contributors to deficits in academic performance, but few data are available describing specific visual-perceptual problems. This study was designed to identify specific visual-perceptual skills in VLBW children.

Parent-child interaction and attention regulation in children born prematurely.

Issues And Purpose: The goal of this pilot study was to understand attention behaviors in extremely low-birth-weight (ELBW) children within the context of parent-child interactions and their relation to the child's independent performance.

Design And Methods: Parent-child and child-alone puzzle matching tasks, demographics, and IQ were measured in a sample of 15 4-year-olds who weighed <1000 g at birth and were free from major disability.

Results: A self-regulated and efficient strategy during the parent-child puzzle was related to using an efficient strategy when working alone.