ABSTRACT
Purpose
To compare the performance of children born premature with low birth weight (LBW) and very low birth-weight (VLBW) with that of children born at term, within the age range of one to three years, regarding child development in the gross motor, fine motor-adaptive, personal-social and language domains.
Methods
This is a cross-sectional study in a cohort of 150 infants born premature (experimental group) and at term (control group) divided into eight groups with respect to weight (low birth weight: <2500 grams and very low birth weight: <1500 grams) and age range (aged 12 to 24 and 25 to 36 months). The control groups were paired with the experimental groups as for gender, chronological age, and socioeconomic level. Assessment comprised the application of anamnesis protocol, socioeconomic classification, and Denver Developmental Screening Test (DDST-II). Corrected age was calculated for premature children up to 24 months of age. Descriptive statistical analysis and the Student’s t-test were used.
Results
No statistically significant difference was found in the comparison between the groups of infants born premature and at term for all domains evaluated.
Conclusion
The performance of infants born premature was lower than that of infants born at term regarding the gross motor, fine motor-adaptive, personal-social and language domains. In this study, the preterm groups presented different performances, i.e., normative, average, and below average performances were observed within the same group.
Keywords
Premature Infant; Development; Language, Child Development; Assessment