Preterm children's mathematic learning problems: universal life-course consequences and impact on educational practice
Final Report Abstract
One of the most significant child‐related developmental risk factors is preterm birth: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 15 million babies worldwide (>10% of all births) are born preterm (<37 weeks gestational age (GA)) every year and prematurity is the leading cause of long-term morbidity. Preterm children’s brains grow more slowly and differently than full term children’s brains, and, as a result, preterm children are at highly increased risk for a range of neuro‐developmental, cognitive and attention problems, and poor academic achievement, in particular in mathematics. With our publications we have made substantial progress towards determining the prevalence, precursors, and underlying neurodevelopmental, cognitive, and social origins of mathematic difficulties in children across the total spectrum of gestational age using data of the Bavarian Longitudinal Study (BLS). For example, we found evidence that dyscalculia may have its neurodevelopmental origins in prenatal factors such as foetal growth retardation and that mechanical ventilation after birth negatively influences childhood mathematic abilities. In addition to behavioural measures of performance, neuroimaging has the potential to elucidate associations between neural mechanisms and long-term development after preterm birth. Accordingly, our results confirmed group differences between preterm and full term adults’ intrinsic connectivity and showed that differences in preterm adults’ dorsal fronto-parietal networks’ intrinsic functional connectivity (iFC) are associated with both the duration of mechanical ventilation after birth and maths performance in childhood. This points to the significance of fronto-parietal network integrity for efficient maths performance and also suggests iFC of the parietal cortex as potential biomarker for maths problems in preterm individuals. Finally, although long-term effects of preterm birth have almost exclusively been studied from a deficit perspective, we have shown that sensitive parenting at age 6 years is a protective factor that may compensate for preterm children’s academic underachievement. Overall, our project has shown that there are specific problem areas that are characteristically affected in the preterm phenotype whereas most problems may be explained by more general cognitive impairments of preterm children. In future studies we need to investigate how preterm children can be better supported in school, particularly in mathematics. Despite their frequent developmental problems, most preterm children attend mainstream schools, thus teachers are responsible for identifying and providing special support for an increasing number of children with complex learning difficulties. Teachers need to understand who are the high-risk groups for specific learning problems as early identification and individually tailored support may help all preterm children to live up to their full academic potential. Preterm children had an adverse start into life however by trying to understand the mechanisms underlying their long-term development we may progressively be able to meet their specific needs in order to promote life-long personal success and quality of life.
Publications
- (2013). Effects of gestational age at birth on cognitive performance: A function of cognitive workload demands. PLoS ONE
Jaekel, J., Baumann, N., & Wolke, D.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0065219) - (2014). Effects of maternal sensitivity on low birth weight children’s academic achievement: a test of differential susceptibility vs. diathesis stress. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 56(6), 693-701
Jaekel, J., Pluess, M., Belsky, J. & Wolke, D.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12331) - (2014). Neonatale Prädiktoren von Rechenschwäche. pädiatrische praxis, 82(3), 361-369
Jäkel, J. & Wolke, D.
- (2014). Neurodevelopmental pathways to preterm children’s specific and general mathematic abilities. Early Human Development, 90(10), 639-44
Jaekel, J., Bartmann, P., Schneider, W., & Wolke, D.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2014.07.015) - (2014). Preterm birth and dyscalculia. The Journal of Pediatrics
Jaekel, J. & Wolke, D.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2014.01.069) - (2015). Universal gestational age effects on cognitive and basic mathematic processing: 2 cohorts in 2 countries. The Journal of Pediatrics, 166(6), 1410–1416
Wolke, D., Strauss, V., Johnson, S., Gilmore, C., Marlow, N., & Jaekel, J.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2015.02.065)
