Home Environment, Brain Injury, & School Performance in LBW Survivors

Abstract

There were statistically significant and potentially clinical meaningful models when looking at the home environmental variables as they relate to reading and math scores. The findings suggest that at least one variable within a LBW child's socio-environmental milieu can moderate the effects of perinatal brain injury on school performance outcomes.

Developmental trajectories in children with prolonged NICU stays

“…This indicates that socioeconomic factors may play an increasingly important role compared with birth and medical history in a child's academic performance as he or she ages 7 17. These results are consistent with previous publications that have found a strong link between SES and cognitive outcomes in NICU-admitted children and children with neurological complications, with supplanting or amplifying effects of SES on complications of lower gestational age at birth 1 14 19–21 25 26…”

“…In light of these findings and other studies that support similar results, it is imperative to closely follow-up patients with prolonged NICU stays, especially those with stays longer than 60 days 3. As the child ages, other factors, notably those related to the family's SES, which includes parents’ income, education and occupation also start to play a significant role in cognitive development,4 21 26 thus shifting the focus of interventions to education and social programmes. As noted above, other studies have shown that the effects of medical complexity at birth and lower SES on a child's cognitive development are additive, placing this subcategory of children at even greater risk, warranting close follow-up and early interventions 18–20…”