Differences in Neurocognitive Abilities in Premature and Full-term Infants at 5 Months of Age

Abstract

It is known that prematurity is a risk for neurodevelopmental disorders. Most of the studies were dedicated to those children who have reached the preschool and primary school age. However, the impact of prematurity on neurocognitive functions in the early stages of development is not investigated thoroughly. The aim of this research was to reveal the differences in neurocognitive development in premature (24 babies) and gender-matched healthy mature full-term infants (31 participants) at 5 months of age. The gestational age of preterm children was between 29 and 35 weeks. The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (3rd Edition) were used to evaluate the neurocognitive abilities in children. The one-way ANOVA has revealed that premature infants at 5 months of corrected age performed significantly (p ≤ 0.05) more poorly than the full-term infants on cognitive scale, receptive language, gross and fine motor. No significant differences (p ≤.05) were found between preterm and full-term children on expressive language. In view of the obtained results, it can be assumed that the prematurity has specific (not global) negative effect on neurocognitive development at 5 months of age.