Predictors of language and reading outcomes in 12-year-old children born very preterm.

Aim: To investigate predictors of language and reading outcomes in 12-year-old Swedish children born very preterm (<32 gestational weeks) in 2004-2007.

Method: Children born very preterm (n = 78, 43 girls), and term-born controls (n = 50, 32 girls), were examined on verbal IQ, semantic and phonemic fluency, sentence recall, reading fluency, word and phonological decoding at 12 years of age. The results were related to neonatal characteristics, language development, measured with Bayley-III, at 2.

Mri findings, looking behaviour and affect recognition in very preterm children: A pilot study.

Children born very preterm often exhibit atypical gaze behaviors, affect recognition difficulties and are at risk for cerebral white matter damage. This study explored links between these sequalae. In 24 12-year-old children born very preterm, ventricle size using Evans and posterior ventricle indices, and corpus callosum area were used to measure white matter thickness.

Brain MRI findings and their association with visual impairment in young adolescents born very preterm.

Purpose: Very preterm birth increases risk for neonatal white matter injury, but there is limited data on to what extent this persists into adolescence and how this relates to ophthalmological outcomes. The aim of this study was to assess brain MRI findings in 12-year-old children born very preterm compared to controls and their association with concurrent ophthalmological outcomes.

Methods: We included 47 children born very preterm and 22 full-term controls (gestational age <32 and >37 weeks, respectively).

Neurobehavioral symptoms in children born extremely preterm: A Swedish National Study.

Aim: To determine the prevalence of neurobehavioral symptoms at 6.5 years in children born extremely preterm (EPT, <27 weeks' gestation).

Methods: Population-based cohort study of infants born EPT in Sweden from 2004 to 2007.

Different aspects of visual perception are important for 12-year social functioning depending on gestational age.

Aim: Perceptual mechanisms in social functioning might promote interventions. We investigated relations between visual perception and social functioning, in preterm children.

Methods: A prospective preterm cohort born in Uppsala County, Sweden, in 2004-2007 and 49 full-term controls were examined at 12 years.

Predictive value of Bayley-III Motor Index for later motor difficulties in children born extremely preterm.

Aim: To investigate the predictive ability of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (Bayley-III) Motor Index, in children born extremely preterm (<27 gestational weeks) without cerebral palsy.

Methods: Children from the EXPRESS study (all extremely preterm births in Sweden, 2004-2007) without neurosensory impairments assessed with Bayley-III at 2.5 years corrected age and Movement Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition (MABC-2), at 6.

Early Hyperglycemia in Very Preterm Infants Is Associated with Reduced White Matter Volume and Worse Cognitive and Motor Outcomes at 2.5 Years.

Introduction: Hyperglycemia in very preterm infants is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. We aimed to investigate potential associations between early hyperglycemia, neonatal cerebral magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and neurodevelopment at 2.5 years.

Visual tracking at 4 months in preterm infants predicts 6.5-year cognition and attention.

Background: Visual tracking of moving objects requires sustained attention and prediction of the object's trajectory. We tested the hypothesis that measures of eye-head tracking of moving objects are associated to long-term neurodevelopment in very preterm infants.

Methods: Visual tracking performance was assessed at 4 month's corrected age in 57 infants with gestational age <32 weeks.

Antenatal steroids and neurodevelopment in 12-year-old children born extremely preterm.

Aim: To investigate neurodevelopmental outcome in 12-year-old children born very preterm in relation to perinatal, neonatal and socioeconomic variables. To examine whether previously described positive effects of antenatal steroids on cognition persist at 12 years.

Methods: Prospective cohort, 78 children with gestational ages 22.

Using different definitions affected the reported prevalence of neurodevelopmental impairment in children born very preterm.

Aim: We investigated the impact of varying definitions on the prevalence of neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI) in children born very preterm at 6.5 years of age.

Methods: Cognitive development and neurosensory impairments were assessed in 91 children (40/51 girls/boys) born <32 gestational weeks, in 2004-2007 in Uppsala county, Sweden.

Reaching skills of infants born very preterm predict neurodevelopment at 2.5 years.

The purpose was to investigate associations between quality of reaching for moving objects at 8 months corrected age and neurodevelopment at 2.5 years in children born very preterm (gestational age (GA), 24-31 weeks). Thirtysix infants were assessed while reaching for moving objects.

National population-based cohort study found that visual-motor integration was commonly affected in extremely preterm born children at six-and-a-half years.

Aim: This study aimed to explain the relationship between visual-motor integration (VMI) abilities and extremely preterm (EPT) birth, by exploring the influence of perinatal variables, cognition, manual dexterity and ophthalmological outcomes.

Methods: This was part of the population-based national Extremely Preterm Infant Study in Sweden (EXPRESS) study. We studied 355 children, born at a gestational age of <27 weeks from April 2004 to March 2007, and 364 term-born controls.

Impaired cognitive ability at 2.5 years predicts later visual and ophthalmological problems in children born very preterm.

Aim: To identify possible predictive factors for visual problems at 6.5 years in children born very preterm.

Methods: During 2004-2007, all very preterm infants (gestational age [GA] <32 weeks) in Uppsala County, Sweden were screened for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) neonatally; at four months, visual tracking was tested; at 2.

Visual tracking in very preterm infants at 4 mo predicts neurodevelopment at 3 y of age.

Background: Typically developing infants track moving objects with eye and head movements in a smooth and predictive way at 4 mo of age, but this ability is delayed in very preterm infants. We hypothesized that visual tracking ability in very preterm infants predicts later neurodevelopment.

Method: In 67 very preterm infants (gestational age<32 wk), eye and head movements were assessed at 4 mo corrected age while the infant tracked a moving object.