Developmental Characteristics of High-Risk Infants According to the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-Third Edition.

Background: The present study aimed to determine the developmental characteristics of high-risk infants with birth and perinatal risk factors according to gestational age using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-Third Edition (Bayley-III) and to assess the clinical utility of the scale.

Methods: This study included 100 high-risk infants < 12 months' corrected age who presented to a hospital in Korea. Developmental levels of cognitive, language and motor scales were confirmed using Bayley-III and analysed by dividing the infants according to gestational age as follows: high-risk full-term, moderate-to-late preterm and very preterm. Collected data were analysed using descriptive statistics, frequency analysis, analysis of variance and chi-squared tests using SPSS version 24.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA).

Results: In terms of developmental characteristics according to gestational age, moderate-to-late preterm infants exhibited average levels in all cognitive, language and motor domains, while high-risk full-term infants and very preterm infants exhibited low average levels in all cognitive, language and motor domains. The three groups exhibited statistically significant differences in the language domain, and analysis of the relationship between gestational age and degree of developmental delay revealed significant differences, especially in expressive language.

Conclusions: This study is meaningful in that it analysed the developmental characteristics of high-risk infants according to gestational age using Bayley-III. The Bayley-III test in high-risk infants < 12 months of age was useful for screening developmental delay; however, there is a need for careful follow-up and evaluation of the subsequent development process.