Premature birth linked to behavioural, potential learning difficulties: research

Premature birth is linked to significant behavioural and potential learning difficulties that persist at least to school age.

Researchers found preterm children were “significantly behind” in tasks involving executive functions — those related to attention, concentration and self-control.

Premature birth is linked to significant behavioural and potential learning difficulties that persist at least to school age if not longer, new research reveals.

The findings, from researchers at the University of Tasmania, suggest extra assistance may be needed for preterm children to ensure they do not carry these difficulties into school years and beyond.

Researchers from the university’s College of Health and Medicine conducted a series of tests on kindergarten children; 140 born prematurely and 80 at full term.

They found preterm children were “significantly behind” in tasks involving executive functions — those related to attention, concentration and self-control.

In one test, which challenged children to say “night” when presented with a picture of the sun and “day” when shown the moon, full term children did twice as well as preterm children.

“We see that preterm born children are significantly poorer than their term peers at suppressing those immediate responses, or planning ahead and not doing what is immediately easiest,” said researcher Dr Nenagh Kemp.

The results suggested preterm children had more difficulty completing one task before starting another; waiting their turn, and; being able to plan and organise, such as by packing a lunch box the night before school.

“The suggestion seems to be that their brains just didn’t get those extra weeks in the womb to develop,” said associate professor Kemp.

“Clearly, when they are born they continue to develop, but it might just be that little bit slower than children who had that extra time in that very cocooned environment.

“What we don’t know for now is whether it’s a delay or a deficit. Does it just takes them a few more years to catch up, or do they show a persistent deficit? We don’t know if those difficulties persist into High School or even into adulthood.”

For this reason, the researchers, based at the college’s division of psychology, were now recruiting older preterm and non-preterm children, aged 10-17.

Dr Kemp believed the research could justify and help design extra support for preterm children, in particular boys and those from poorer backgrounds who appeared most affected.

“You can put more time and effort into your child if you know there’s a chance they may struggle a little bit,” she said. “So more time with them, helping them with tasks, such as planning ahead and inhibiting immediate responses.

“Some children will be fine despite being premature. It’s definitely not a sentence that you are born preterm and therefore you are going to have problems.

“We are now looking at training programs, interventions, for children who might be more at risk than others.”