Motor Development in Very Preterm and Very Low-Birth-Weight Children From Birth to Adolescence

Abstract

, van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT Amsterdam, the Netherlands (jf.de.kieviet@psy .vu.nl). Context Infants who are very preterm (born Յ32 weeks of gestation) and very low birth weight (VLBW) (weighing Յ1500 g) are at risk for poor developmental outcomes. There is increasing evidence that very preterm birth and VLBW have a considerable effect on motor development, although findings are inconsistent. Objective To investigate the relationship between very preterm birth and VLBW and motor development. Data Sources The computerized databases EMBASE, PubMed, and Web of Knowledge were used to search for English-language peer-reviewed articles published between January 1992 and August 2009. Study Selection Studies were included if they reported motor scores of very preterm and VLBW children without congenital anomalies using 1 of 3 established and widely used motor tests: the Bayley Scales of Infant Development II (BSID-II), the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC), and the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOTMP). Forty-one articles were identified, encompassing 9653 children. Results In comparison with term-born peers, very preterm and VLBW children obtained significantly lower scores on all 3 motor tests: BSID-II: d=−0.88

Decreased postural control in adolescents born with extremely low birth weight

“…The present study shows that functional deficits of postural control from ELBW are not limited to younger children, but persist into adolescence, i.e., the deficits persist after the developmental stages of postural control are completed. This finding is in keeping with other recent reports of persistent motor control problems in adolescents and adults after preterm birth and VLBW (Evensen et al 2004;de Kieviet et al 2009). Moreover, since presence of CP was one of the exclusion criteria in this study, persisting postural control issues into adulthood was not limited only to subjects suffering from severe lesions such as CP from preterm birth, but seemingly, subjects born with ELBW generally perform worse than controls.…”

“…The motor proficiency has been described as consistently poorer in very preterm and VLBW children than in normative samples, influencing both fine and gross motor skills (de Kieviet et al 2009). However, the observable motor deficits may vary with age, i.e., decrease within the first years of development but then stabilize or increase later in development (de Kieviet et al 2009).…”

“…However, the observable motor deficits may vary with age, i.e., decrease within the first years of development but then stabilize or increase later in development (de Kieviet et al 2009). Moreover, in children showing no apparent signs of dysfunction at a young age, functional deficit and motor problems may appear first with increasing age when the complexity of the motor tasks performed set higher demands on the neural functions (de Graaf-Peters and Hadders-Algra 2006).…”

Association Between Physical and Motor Development in Childhood: A Longitudinal Study of Japanese Twins

“…It is well-known that low birth weight children have high risk for delayed motor development (de Kieviet et al, 2009), and delays in brain development, such as the total brain volume and the size of hippocampus, have been found (de Kieviet et al, 2012). There is also sound evidence that length or height and head circumference (HC) at birth and over childhood are positively associated with IQ (Broekman et al, 2009;FattalValevski et al, 2009;Heinonen et al, 2008;Lira et al, 2010).…”

“…It is well-known that multiple maternal factors, such as smoking and low social position, can affect the birth weight and physical development of the newborn, as well as neurological development (Valero De Bernabe et al, 2004). Also, gestational age has a longstanding effect on neurodevelopment and can thus partly explain these associations (de Kieviet et al, 2009). In this respect twin studies are important.…”