Behavioral Outcomes of Extremely Low Birth Weight Children at Age 8 Years

Abstract

Objective To describe the prevalence of behavioral problems and symptomatology suggestive of Autism and Asperger’s disorders at age 8 years among extremely low birth weight (ELBW, <1 kg) children, born 1992 through 1995. Method Parent reports of the behavior of 219 ELBW (mean birth weight, 810 g; gestational age 26 weeks) were compared with 176 normal birth weight children of similar maternal sociodemographic status, sex, and age. Behavior was assessed via the Child Symptom Inventory that includes both Symptom Severity Scores and scores meeting DSM-IV criteria for disorders. Results ELBW compared with normal birth weight children had significantly higher mean Symptom Severity Scores for the inattentive, hyperactive, and combined types of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (all p < .001) as well as higher scores for Generalized Anxiety (p < .01) and Autistic (p < .001) and Asperger’s (p < .01) disorders. When DSM-IV criteria were considered, ELBW children also had significantly higher rates of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder of the inattentive (10% vs 3%, p < .01) and combined (5% vs 0.6%, p < .05) types. Conclusions Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, mainly the inattentive type is prevalent among ELBW children. Our findings of an increase in symptoms pertaining to Autistic and Asperger’s disorders at school age agree with recent reports of others during early childhood. Early identification and intervention for these problems might improve child functioning and ameliorate parent and child distress.

Educational Outcomes in Extremely Preterm Children: Neuropsychological Correlates and Predictors of Attainment

“…These deficits contribute additional morbidity in this population, with differences between EP/ELBW and term children remaining significant after adjustment for IQ (Aarnoudse-Moens, Smidts, et al, 2009;Anderson & Doyle, 2004;Marlow et al, 2007;Taylor, Klein, Minich, et al, 2000). Behavioral and psychiatric morbidity, particularly attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and social and emotional problems, are also common in EP/ELBW survivors (Bhutta et al, 2002;Farooqi, Hagglof, Sedin, Gothefors, & Serenius, 2007;Hack et al, 2009;Hille et al, 2001;Johnson et al, 2010;. It is thus not surprising that EP birth has an adverse effect on later educational attainment.…”

Hot and cool executive functions in very and extremely preterm preschool children

“…Researchers suggest that problems with concentration, which can continue on into adulthood, are the most common consequences of the immaturity of the brain at birth (Aarnoudse-Moens, Smidts, Oosterlaan, Duivenvoorden, & Weisglas-Kuperus, 2009;Anderson, 2014;Bhutta, Cleves, Casey, Cradock, & Anand, 2002;Hack et al, 2009;Mulder, Pitchford, Hagger, & Marlow, 2009;Johnson & Marlow, 2011). Johnson and Marlow (2011), in their review of research on the most common problems in premature children, described a pattern of behavior that they defined as phenotypic.…”

Interpretação de ambiguidades de escolares de Embu das Artes (SP) nascidos com baixo peso

“…Despite the two previous demonstrations aiming to explain the task (10) , some children may have needed more time or more examples to learn the activity and, therefore, have failed the item in the first execution, considering that no difference between the groups was found for the other items. According to the literature, children born with low weight may show signs of inattention and failure in executive functions (19,23,24,26) which entail greater response latency for certain tasks, leading to a slower information processing (27) . Analysis of the predictors of metalinguistic ability of the SG (Table 4) and CG (Table 3) showed that each year increased in the child's age in both groups, increased the possibility of identification of double lexical meaning (2.47 for the SG and 3.98 for the CG).…”

“…Araújo (22) reasons that the further the use of a word, the greater the complexity of the cognitive process to identify its meanings. The identification would involve contextual analysis and the domain of linguistic experience, which could be more critical in children with language disorders (23) , a fact that has been associated with low-birth-weight children by the specific literature (24,25) . Furthermore, the difference lies in the first item to be executed; such circumstances could be one of the hypotheses to explain the lower scores of the children in the SG.…”