Premature babies will catch up to peers in school
- Babies born before the 37th week of pregnancy do just as well in school as peers
- Two out of three babies born in week 23 or 24 were ready for school on time
- A small percentage of preemie babies in the study achieved a ‘gifted’ status
- The Northwestern University in Chicago study was the first of its kind
Cheyenne Roundtree For Dailymail.com
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Premature babies do as well at school as peers born at full-term, say scientists.
The study followed more than 1.3 million Florida children into middle school to examine how preemie babies performed in regards to their education.
This is believed to be the first study of its kind, due to its magnitude and because researchers tracked children over a 10-year span.
The experts concluded parents had unfounded fears that their premature children would struggle in school.
More than sixty percent of babies born at only 23 or 24 weeks were ready for kindergarten on time, with almost two percent achieving a ‘gifted’ status in school.
While these extremely premature babies often scored low on standardized tests, experts believe this wasn’t a cause for concern as most were able to fully catch up to their peers by middle school.
Babies born before the 37th week of pregnancy do just as well in school as their peers, a Chicago study found
HEALTH RISKS OF PREMATURE BIRTHS
Babies born before the 37th week of pregnancy may need special medical attention.
This is due to some of their vital organs not being developed fully, including the lungs, brain and liver.
Around 10 percent of infants born annually are premature.
In addition to the immediate health concerns, these babies may face other risk factors as they grow up.
Premature babies have a higher risk of being depressed as they grow older, recent research suggests.
They are more prone to have ADHD in childhood, anxiety and even being shy as an adult, experts claim.
Preterm birth can also cause childhood neurologic disability, as well as long-term medical consequences including respiratory, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular diseases and decreased immunity.
Premature babies often scored low on standard reading, writing and maths tests, pre-term infants born 25 weeks or later performed only slightly worse than full-term counterparts.
As the length of pregnancy increased after 28 weeks the differences in test scores were negligible.
Professor Craig Garfield, a pediatrician at Northwestern University in Chicago, said: ‘Many studies look at premature babies but very few of them look at their educational outcomes into middle school in such a large population.’
Four years ago a British study suggested boys and girls born early were 50 percent more likely to fail the reading, writing and math tests given at the end of their second year in school.
Children born before 37 weeks of pregnancy were also more likely to be diagnosed as having dyslexia, deafness and other problems that class them as having special educational needs.
But the latest findings are the most comprehensive, analyzing babies born in Florida from 1992 to 2002.
Their gestational ages ranged from 23 to 41 weeks and they later entered Florida public schools between 1995 and 2012.
Professor David Figlio, director of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, said: ‘While some people might be troubled very premature infants tend to score well below their full-term peers on standardized tests, I believe the glass is more than half-full.
‘Most infants born at 23 to 24 weeks still demonstrate a high degree of cognitive functioning at the start of kindergarten and throughout school.’
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The study published in JAMA Pediatrics matched the babies’ vital statistic records with their Florida public school records to examine the association between being born early and educational performance.
Professor Garfield said: ‘What excites me about this study is it changes the focus for the clinician and families at the bedside from just focusing on the medical outcomes of the child to what the future educational outcomes might be for a child born early.
‘What’s special about this study is it speaks to the importance of administrative data sets and the ability to combine different data sets in ways that allow us to ask questions and get answers about how our children are doing in the long-run.’
But the data does not account for some of the infants’ medical issues related to premature birth or provide information about why they did well in school.
This includes their biological make-up or if they received extra support from family or schools, said Professor Garfield.
However most babies born prematurely ended up performing reasonably well on standardized tests through middle school.
Professor Garfield said: ‘Our future work in this area will focus on what parents and service providers can do to help future premature children to achieve their full potential.’
Four years ago a much smaller study of less than 12,000 youngsters by Bristol University said a third of children born before 37 weeks lag behind by the time they turn seven, it was revealed.
They found these pupils were put at an ‘educational disadvantage’ compared with those born at around 40 weeks.
It was claimed the effect was even more marked if a premature birth over the summer months caused the child to be placed in the older year group.
The study also found over one-in-three premature children was diagnosed with some form of special educational needs – far higher than the national average of around a fifth.
It led to calls for a change in policy so the school entry age for children born prematurely is based on their expected due date rather than their premature date of birth.
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