Early Psychological Development of Very Preterm and/or Low Birth Weight Children: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

Objective -The aim of this paper is to describe the psychological development in three areas (cognitive, communicative-linguistic and social-emotional domains) of very preterm children and/or low birth weight, aged from 0 to 6 years, to discover if problems exist and if these difficulties remain, decrease or increase over time, up to 6 years of age, through of review of studies done in this population. Materials and methods -Seven databases were searched. The search yielded 975 studies and those related to cognitive, communicative-linguistic and social-emotional development in children without physical problems, ranging in age from birth to 6 years, gestational age less than 32 weeks and/or birth-weight less than 2499 grams were analyzed. Most of the 47 studies analyzed were conducted after 2005, focused on children aged 3-5 years, and compared preterm and full-term infants. ResultsThe studies agree that preterm children differ in many developmental domains but there is no consensus on others. Several studies found a close association between the three different areas analyzed. Conclusion -Early intervention of preterm and/or low birth weight children is the most important way to prevent and/or reduce academic, communicative and social-emotional (anxiety/depression) problems, and improve long-term adaptation to the environment, self-regulation, communication skills, social competence and academic performance in general.

Type of Delivery, Neuropsychological Development and Intelligence in Twin Births

“…The results confirm the importance of prenatal and perinatal variables, such as type of delivery, in psychological development, as shown by some studies (Calame et al, 2004; David and Dean, 2007; Lollar and Cordero, 2007; Cattani et al, 2010; Dall’oglio et al, 2010; Bidzan and Bieleninik, 2013; González-Valenzuela et al, 2015a; Asztalos et al, 2016). In addition, they are in line with those studies that establish negative effects of cesarean section on children’s microbiome and on psychological development (Hogle et al, 2003; Villar et al, 2007; Wallin et al, 2010; Cryan and Dinan, 2012; Galland, 2014; Asztalos et al, 2016; Polidano et al, 2017).…”

“…Certain obstetric conditions frequently associated with multiple pregnancies, such as maternal age, preterm birth, birth weight perinatal hypoxia, or labor complications, have been implicated in developmental delays among children (Calame et al, 2004; Jansson-Verkasalo et al, 2004; David and Dean, 2007; Lollar and Cordero, 2007; Wolke et al, 2008; Cattani et al, 2010; Dall’oglio et al, 2010; Mercier et al, 2010; Kurth and Haussmann, 2011; Bidzan and Bieleninik, 2013; González-Valenzuela et al, 2015a,b). Preterm birth and low birth weight are important determinants of psychological development, since it has been shown that the earlier the birth in terms of weeks of gestation and the lower the birth weight, the greater the delay observed in psychological development, particularly in the first few years (Jansson-Verkasalo et al, 2004; Mercier et al, 2010; Aarnoudse-Moens et al, 2012; Zwicker and Harris, 2012; González-Valenzuela et al, 2015b).…”

Rapid infant prefrontal cortex development and sensitivity to early environmental experience

“…Early EF differences have been detected in very PT infants (Sun, Mohay, & Callaghan, 2009) and toddlers (Clark, Woodward, Horwood, & Moor, 2008; Pozzetti et al, 2013) across the first two years of life in comparison to full-term infants (see review in Gonzalez-Valenzuela et al, 2015). A small study using the A not B task found that lower-risk PT infants outperformed full-term infants when tested at their corrected-age and performed equivalently on other early measures of EF (Matthews, Ellis, & Nelson, 1996); however, this advantage for lower-risk PT infants disappeared when comparing groups based on chronological age (i.e., age from birthdate) and other studies have found variation in gestational age in lower-risk PT infants is correlated with early EF skills (Hodel et al, 2017).…”