Premature bubs can catch up by their teenage years

BY the time premature babies are teenagers their brains can perform almost as well as their full term peers, an Adelaide University study shows.

THINKSTOCK ONE TIME ONLY small premature baby lies in an incubator a grown hand reaches in grasping the foot in caring manne...

BY the time premature babies are teenagers their brains can perform almost as well as their full term peers.

But the new Adelaide University research found that the quality of their home environment at the time of their birth had a strong influence on their cognition later in life.

The new paper from the university’s Robinson Research Institute said that whether a child was born premature had less of an influence on their cognition than their degree of social disadvantage in their early life.

The study looked at 145 young people aged over 12 who were born preterm and full term.

“The results of our study provide further proof that those born at term tend to have better cognitive abilities, such as working memory, brain processing efficiency and general intellectual ability,” research officer Dr Luke Schnieder said.

He said reduced connectivity in the brain could contribute to cognitive deficits in these children, but they could be overcome, depending on the child’s home environment.

Originally published as Premature bubs can catch up by their teenage years