School Readiness in 4-Year-Old Very Preterm Children

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Gerry H Taylor, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus; Daphe M Vrantsidis, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus; Mary Lauren Neel, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus; Rebekah Benkart, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus; Tyler A Busch, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus; Aryanne de Silva, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus; Shivika Udaipuria, Emory University; Nathalie Maitre, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2022-03-01
• Publisher: MDPI
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2022 by the authors.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9030323
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: CHILDREN-BASEL
• Volume: 9
• Issue: 3
• Grant/Funding Information: This research was funded by the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, cost center 40310-0008.
• Keywords: BEHAVIOR; LOW-BIRTH-WEIGHT; Science & Technology; OUTCOMES; very preterm birth; SOCIAL COMPETENCE; school readiness; EXECUTIVE FUNCTION; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; SELF-REGULATION; ACHIEVEMENT; RISK; preschool children; Pediatrics; AGE; INFANTS BORN
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Epidemiology

Abstract

The aims of this study were to identify the aspects of school readiness that best distinguish very preterm (VPT) preschoolers from full-term (FT) controls, determine the extent to which readiness problems in the VPT group reflected global cognitive weaknesses or more specific deficits, and identify distinct profiles of readiness problems. Fifty-three VPT (gestational age ≤ 30 weeks) 4-year-olds were compared to 38 FT (gestational age ≥ 37 weeks) controls on measures of global cognitive ability, executive function, motor skills, early literacy and numeracy, and psychosocial functioning. Latent class analysis (LCA) was also conducted to identify individual readiness profiles. The VPT group had the most pronounced difficulties on tests of spatial and nonverbal cognitive abilities, executive function, motor skills, phonological processing, and numeracy. The VPT group also had sex-related difficulties in processing speed, social functioning, and emotion regulation. These differences were evident in analyses of both continuous scores and rates of deficits. The VPT group’s difficulties in motor skills, and VPT females’ difficulties in social functioning and emotion regulation, were evident even when controlling for global cognitive ability. LCA suggested four profiles of readiness, with the majority of the VPT group assigned to profiles characterized by relative weaknesses in either cognitive abilities or psychosocial functioning or by more global readiness problems. The findings support the need to evaluate multiple aspects of school readiness in VPT preschoolers and inform efforts to design more targeted early educational interventions.