I found an article entitled
“Early Emergence of Behavior and Social Emotional problems in Very Preterm
Infants” which shared vital information about the social-emotional development of
preterm toddlers which stated, “Children born very preterm are reported to have
an increased frequency of social, emotional, and behavioral problems at school
age compared with their peers who are born full term” (Spittle et al.2009). The
main purpose of the study was to compare social-emotional difficulties and
competencies of very preterm and full-term children at 2 years' corrected
age. The relation between perinatal
variables and early behavior problems was also examined to help identify those
very preterm children who were most at risk.
At
2 years' corrected age, the parents of 188 very preterm (gestational age <30
weeks or birth weight <1,250 g) and 70 full-term (gestational age ≥37 weeks)
children completed the Infant Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment to
determine externalizing, internalizing, and dysregulation problems and
social-emotional competencies. For the very preterm children extensive
perinatal data were collected including sex, birth weight, gestational age,
chronic lung disease, and postnatal steroids, as well as neonatal cerebral
white matter abnormalities detected by magnetic resonance imaging.
The
very preterm children at 2 years demonstrated significantly higher
internalizing and dysregulation scores and lower competence scores than peers
born at term. There was no significant difference in externalizing scores
between groups. Female sex, lower birth weight z score, white matter
abnormalities, and postnatal corticosteroids were significantly associated with
lower competence scores in the very preterm group. Very preterm children
exhibit higher rates of behavior problems early in development, in particular
internalizing and dysregulation problems and poorer competence.
As
we know all children develop differently whether they are preterm or full term.
Early detection of problems help support families and makes sure appropriate interventions
are executed. However research information like this allows us to be aware of problems
preterm toddlers may exhibit.
Reference
Spittle, A., Treyvaud, K., Doyle, L., Roberts, G., Lee, K.,
Inder, T., et al.( 2009). Early Emergence of Behavior and Social Emotional
Problems in Very Preterm Infants. Journal of the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry. Vol.8 Issue O. pp.909-918.
