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Email: hudson.taylor@nationwidechildrens.org; Tel.: +1-614-722-3184

Conceptualization, H.G.T., N.L.M., M.L.N., A.d.S.; methodology, H.G.T., N.L.M., M.L.N., A.d.S.; formal analysis, D.M.V., R.B., T.A.B., S.U.; investigation, M.L.N., A.d.S., T.A.B.; data curation, T.A.B., R.B.; writing—original draft preparation, H.G.T., D.M.V., R.B.; writing—review and editing, H.G.T., D.M.V., M.L.N., R.B., T.A.B., A.d.S., S.U., N.L.M.; supervision, H.G.T., N.L.M.; project administration, H.G.T., N.L.M.; funding acquisition, H.G.T., N.L.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

The authors appreciate the assistance of Kerry Orton and Stephanie Burkhardt in project coordination and of examiners Sandra Glazer, Hanan Guzman, Kaleigh Hague, Brianna Laney, Julia Newton, Katelyn Keener, Megan Lightfoot, Ashley Widmayer, Gabrielle Moots, Caitlin Kjeldsen, Lindsey Pietruszewski, and Brianna Sowers. We acknowledge Joseph Rausch, in the Center for Biobehavioral Health at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Nori Minich in the Department of Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University for statistical consultation. We also acknowledge Sasha Key, of Vanderbilt University for creating a computer-based version of the Zoo Game Go No Go Test for this study and as a collaborator on the larger school readiness project. We are also grateful to the children and families who participated in the study.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Subject:

Research Funding:

This research was funded by the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, cost center 40310-0008.

Keywords:

  • Science & Technology
  • Life Sciences & Biomedicine
  • Pediatrics
  • school readiness
  • very preterm birth
  • preschool children
  • LOW-BIRTH-WEIGHT
  • EXECUTIVE FUNCTION
  • SOCIAL COMPETENCE
  • SELF-REGULATION
  • INFANTS BORN
  • OUTCOMES
  • AGE
  • BEHAVIOR
  • RISK
  • ACHIEVEMENT

School Readiness in 4-Year-Old Very Preterm Children

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Journal Title:

CHILDREN-BASEL

Volume:

Volume 9, Number 3

Publisher:

Type of Work:

Article | Final Publisher PDF

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.

Copyright information:

© 2022 by the authors.

This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/rdf).
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