Cognitive performance of 3-year-olds born at very low birth weight

Abstract

This study attempted to identify the specific difficulties in cognitive performance of 3-year-old very low birth weight (VLBW) subjects and to examine the relationship between these difficulties and styles of parental interaction with these children. Three groups of subjects were compared: (1) VLBW, 42 infants born weighing less than 1.5 kg; (2) their siblings (n = 15); and (3) a normal control group (n = 40). All subjects were examined individually on a series of cognitive measures of language, memory, reasoning and visual-motor integration. The interaction between VLBW subjects and their parents was observed and analyzed using criteria of mediated learning experience (MLE). Findings suggest no significant differences between the VLBW subjects and the other groups on most measures used. VLBW subjects were, however, found to perform poorly, as compared to others, on a test requiring auditory sequential memory and on a measure of receptive vocabulary. Birth weight was not found to correlate significantly with any of the cognitive measures. Observations of MLE occurring during the interaction between the parents and their children were found to be significantly correlated with the cognitive performance of VLBW children.

Improving the quality of parental interaction with very low birth weight children: A longitudinal study using a Mediated Learning Experience model

“…Klein, Weider, and Greenspan (1987) found that the amount of parental mediation provided to children affects their cognitive development more than other commonly used predictors of development including measures of early cognitive performance. Using the same mediational method for assessing the quality of parent-child interaction, similar findings were reported for VLBW subjects (Klein, Raziel, Brish, & Birenbaum, 1987). In the latter study, the observed criteria of mediation were more predictive of children's cognitive development than other predictors of developmental outcome including early Bayley scores, birth weight, and APGAR ratings.…”

“…Study 1 (Klein, Raziel, Brish, & Birenbaum, 1987) was designed to compare the performance of forty-two 3-year-olds born of very low birth weights with two control groups, one composed of their siblings (n = 15) and another composed of normal birth weight children (n = 40), on a series of cognitive measures including several subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children -Revised (WISC-R), subtests of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) (Kirk, McCarthy, & Kirk, 1968), and the Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (Beery & Buktanica, 1967). It also assessed the relationship between the quality of parental interaction and cognitive performance of children born weighing below 1.5 kg, which is considered the cutoff point for infants at special risk of nonsurvival and/or of a developmental lag (Davis & Tizard, 1975;Kitchen et al 1980;Yerushalmay, 1967).…”

“…The current report summarizes the results of two studies (Studies 1 & 2) (Klein, Raziel, Brish, & Birenbaum, 1987;Raziel, 1986) involving a population of VLBW subjects and their parents. It then presents the results of a follow-up study (Study 3) with the same population 3 years later to explore the lasting effects of the MLE intervention utilized in Study 2.…”

How New Technology Influences Parent—child Interaction: The Case of e-book Reading

“…This activity incorporates symbolic means-signs (oral and written text) and human psychological mechanisms. We used the Observing Mediational Interaction (OMI) model (Klein, 1996;Klein, Rasiel, Brish, & Birenbaum, 1987). This model employs a coding system that measures the frequencies of adult behaviors that represent basic criteria of adult-child communication and teaching behaviors during caregiver-child or teacher-child interactions.…”

The mediated learning experience (MLE) in a three generational perspective

“…The OMI (Klein, 1988; Klein, Weider, & Greenspan, 1987), based on Feuerstein's MLE theory, is composed of the five MLE criteria outlined above. These criteria were empirically defined and developed into an observation scale, providing a profile of mediation that is based on the frequency of appearance of the behaviours exemplifying each of the criteria (Klein & Aloni, 1993; Klein, Raziel, Brish, & Birenbaum, 1987). A higher frequency of mediated behaviours indicates a higher quality of mediation.…”