Functioning of 7-Year-Old Children Born at 32 to 35 Weeks’ Gestational Age

Abstract

Moderately preterm birth is associated with lower intelligence and poorer neuropsychological functioning at early school age. No differences in motor skills and verbal memory were found. Using gender-specific norms, our data suggest that moderately preterm boys catch up, whereas moderately preterm girls lag behind their peers on various neuropsychological functions by the age of 7 years.

Bilingualism as a Potential Strategy to Improve Executive Function in Preterm Infants: A Review

“…Similarly, no difference in attentional control was found in a cohort of 8-to 11-year-old children born moderate or late preterm (Odd et al, 2012). Although attention may increase with gestational age, other studies reported differences in attention for children born moderate or late preterm, while one study reported attentional differences at age 3 years but not at age 5 years for late preterm-born children (Caravale et al, 2005;Cserjesi et al, 2012;Mulder et al, 2009). ''executive function*'' AND ''multilingual* OR bilingual*'' AND ''infant* OR child*''…”

“…These deficits likely have long-term social and academic implications for the preterm population. Baron et al, 2012;Cserjesi et al, 2012;Edgin et al, 2008;Nosarti et al, 2007;Sun et al, 2009). Aarnoudse-Moens and colleagues (2012) suggest that deficits in response inhibition do not persist into middle childhood in children born < 30 weeks, but another study by Nosarti and colleagues (2007) reported significantly poorer performance on inhibitory tasks of adolescents at age 19 years born < 33 weeks.…”

“…One study reported significant differences only between very preterm-born (and not late preterm) and term-born children at 3 years of age, while another study found that children at age 7 years who were born late preterm score significantly lower on measures of inhibition (Baron et al, 2012;Cserjesi et al, 2012).…”

“…For children older than 3 years and adolescents, attention was most commonly assessed through tasks, such as the Attention Sustained Test, Test of Everyday Attention, and Continuous Performance Tasks, which require individuals to find targets in a display of nontargets as quickly as possible (selective attention) or to work on a task for an extended period (sustained attention; Bayless & Stevenson, 2007;Caravale et al, 2005Caravale et al, , 2012Cserjesi et al, 2012;Mulder, Pitchford, Hager, & Marlow, 2009;Mulder, Pitchford, & Marlow, 2011;Odd et al, 2012). Preterm-born children consistently show poorer selective attention and sustained attention across all gestational ages (Bayless & Stevenson, 2007;Caravale et al, 2005Caravale et al, , 2012Cserjesi et al, 2012;Hallin, Hellstrom-Westas, & Stjernqvist, 2010;Mulder et al, 2009;Nosarti et al, 2007;Rose et al, 2008Rose et al, , 2009Shum, Neulinger, O'Callaghan, & Mohay, 2008;Woodward, Clark, Pritchard, Anderson, & Inder, 2011). Preterm-born children appeared to experience greater difficulty in identifying stimuli and using a search strategy, and were therefore less able to stay focused on one task (Woodward et al, 2011).…”

“…Neuropsychological testing reveals that persons born preterm perform more poorly on measures of executive function than do those born at term (Aarnoudse-Moens, Smidts, Oosterlaan, Duivenvoorden, & Weisglas-Kuperus, 2009; Baron, Kerns, Muller, Ahronovich, & Litman, 2012;Caravale, Mirante, Vagnoni, & Vicari, 2012;Cserjesi et al, 2012;Edgin et al, 2008;Kerstjens et al, 2011;Nosarti et al, 2007;Odd, Emond, & Whitelaw, 2012). Executive functions refer to multiple cognitive processes that control thoughts and behaviors, including information processing, inhibitory control, memory, attention, cognitive flexibility, problem solving, and planning.…”