Concordance between school outcomes and developmental follow-up results of very preterm and/or low birth weight children at the age of 5 years.

Full Abstract

INTRODUCTION:
Long-term follow-up studies have revealed a high frequency of developmental disturbances in preterm survivors of neonatal intensive care who were formerly considered to be non-disabled. These developmental disturbances interfere with the acquisition of everyday skills and, in particular, with normal school functioning.

METHODS:
Developmental and school outcomes of 355 children, age 5 years at the time of the study, who had a mean gestational age of 30.2 weeks (SD:
1.95) and a mean birth weight of 1272 g (SD:
326) were investigated. Children with severe handicaps were excluded from the study. Perinatal data, information from a parental and school questionnaire and data from standardized developmental tests were used to explain the differences.

RESULTS:
An agreement of 72% was found between developmental follow-up and school outcomes. Normal developmental results but problematic school outcomes were found for 15% of the children tested. There were more boys than girls in this latter group as well as small-for-gestational-age children with relatively poor motor or language development. The schools had not identified problems in 13% of the children, whereas their developmental outcomes were problematic. These children had less neonatal morbidity and relatively higher IQ's than children who also had problematic developmental outcomes but who had been signalled as problematic by their schools.

CONCLUSIONS:
Schools have a good insight in the school functioning of children who are developing well and of children with the lowest developmental scores and the most complicated neonatal histories. How school and developmental outcomes interrelate in the in-between groups remains a challenging question that could be answered by following these children throughout their school career.

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Author information

Author/s: van Kessel-Feddema, Boudien (B); Sondaar, Meta (M); de Kleine, Martin (M); Verhaak, Christianne (C); van Baar, Anneloes (A);

Affiliation: Department of Medical Psychology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, P.O. Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands. b.vankessel(-atsign-)cukz.umcn.nl

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: European journal of pediatrics (Eur J Pediatr), published in Germany. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Jul; vol 166 (issue 7) : pp 693-9

Dates: Created 2007/05/22; Completed 2007/10/25; Revised 2008/11/20;

PMID: 17109165, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Infant, Newborn
Infant, Premature
Intelligence Tests
Language Development Disorders - epidemiology
Mainstreaming (Education)
Male
Motor Skills Disorders - epidemiology
Netherlands - epidemiology
Questionnaires
Schools

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