School Difficulties at Adolescence in a Regional Cohort of Children Who Were Extremely Low Birth Weight

Saigal, Saroj; Hoult, Lorraine; Streiner, David L.; Stoskopf, Barbara; Rosenbaum, Peter

doi:10.1542/peds.105.2.325

Cited by 387 publications

(325 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Furthermore, the magnitude of the differences observed in TAAS scores (1.5SD) were consistent with group differences observed on standardized ability and achievement tests in extremely preterm cohorts. 4,19,22 Using the optimal receiver operating characteristic-determined TAAS cut-off of scores <2.5, the clinical validity of the scale was further demonstrated by the high sensitivity and specificity levels for predicting learning impairment, which far exceeded minimum standards for screening tests. 23 Used concurrently, at least 90% of children with learning impairment were identified as such using the TAAS.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing educational outcomes in middle childhood: validation of the Teacher Academic Attainment Scale

Johnson

Marlow

Wolke

2012

Develop Med Child Neuro

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SEN Special educational needs TAAS Teacher Academic Attainment Scale WIAT-II Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, 2nd (UK) editionAIM Assessing educational outcomes in high-risk populations is crucial for defining long-term outcomes. As standardized tests are costly and time-consuming, we assessed the use of the Teacher Academic Attainment Scale (TAAS) as an outcome measure.METHOD Three hundred and forty three children in mainstream schools aged 10 to 11 years (144 males, 199 females; 190 extremely preterm and 153 term; mean age 10y 9mo, SD 5.5mo, range 9y 8mo-12y 3mo) were assessed using the reading and mathematics scales of the criterion standard Wechsler Individual Achievement Test, 2nd (UK) edition (WIAT-II). Class teachers completed the TAAS, a seven-item questionnaire for assessing academic attainment. The TAAS was also completed at 6 years of age for 266 children.RESULTS Cronbach's alpha 0.95 indicated excellent internal consistency, and the correlation between TAAS scores at 6 and 11 years indicated good test-retest reliability (r=0.77, p<0.001). Significantly higher TAAS scores for term vs preterm children demonstrated discriminative validity. TAAS scores at 6 and 11 years were significantly correlated with WIAT-II reading (r=0.69 and 0.75, p<0.001) and mathematics (r=0.75 and 0.82, p<0.001) scores, demonstrating good predictive and concurrent validity respectively. TAAS scores of <2.5 were good predictors of learning difficulties. INTERPRETATIONThe TAAS is a brief, psychometrically sound teacher-report of academic attainment that yields continuous and categorical outcomes. It provides a cost-and time-efficient outcome measure for large-scale studies.Longitudinal studies of high-risk populations have shown that early insult to the developing brain can have major consequences that persist far beyond the initial period of recovery. Even in the absence of neurosensory disabilities, infants may be at risk of more subtle residual impairments that impact upon school performance. The adverse effects of perinatal illness on educational outcomes have been documented for a range of high-risk populations including infants who required surgery, 1 those with neonatal encephalopathy, 2 meningitis in infancy, 3 and children born preterm 4,5 or small for gestational age. 6 Quantifying scholastic performance is crucial for assessing the spectrum of long-term outcomes in epidemiological and cohort studies. Formal norm-referenced tests of academic attainment are frequently used as outcome measures but require administration by qualified examiners, are costly and time consuming, and are often difficult to implement in largescale investigations. Furthermore, cross-cultural studies often necessitate the use of different language-and curriculumspecific outcome measures, making international comparisons problematic, both conceptually and statistically.Teachers are well placed to comment on a child's school performance, and previous studies have shown that they are able to provide accurate judgements of attainment compared wit...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing educational outcomes in middle childhood: validation of the Teacher Academic Attainment Scale

Johnson

Marlow

Wolke

2012

Develop Med Child Neuro

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“…It has long been observed that infants born very prematurely show difficulties in academic learning (e.g. Saigal et al, 2000;Grunau et al, 2002) that persist through adolescence (e.g. Hack et al, 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cortisol, contingency learning, and memory in preterm and full-term infants

Haley

Weinberg

Grunau

2006

Psychoneuroendocrinology

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SummaryCortisol plays an important role in learning and memory. An inverted-U shaped function has been proposed to account for the positive and negative effects of cortisol on cognitive performance and memory in adults, such that too little or too much impair but moderate amounts facilitate performance. Whether such relationships between cortisol and mental function apply to early infancy, when cortisol secretion, learning, and memory undergo rapid developmental changes, is unknown. We compared relationships between learning/memory and cortisol in preterm and full-term infants and examined whether a greater risk for adrenal insufficiency associated with prematurity produces differential cortisol-memory relationships. Learning in three-month old (corrected for gestational age) preterm and full-term infants was evaluated using a conjugate reinforcement mobile task. Memory was tested by repeating the same task 24 h later. Salivary cortisol samples were collected before and 20 min after the presentation of the mobile. We found that preterm infants had lower cortisol levels and smaller cortisol responses than full-term infants. This is consistent with relative adrenal insufficiency reported in the neonatal period. Infants who showed increased cortisol levels from 0 to 20 min on Day 1 had significantly better memory, regardless of prematurity, than infants who showed decreased cortisol levels.

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“…58 Certain studies have documented worse performance in verbal reasoning tests, with 24% of lack of accuracy at reading and 48% of inadequate comprehension when reading, 63 but the majority of authors point out that very low birth weight children, particularly those born at less than 750 g, exhibit compromise in areas of educational ability which can prejudice their academic performance. 58,[64][65][66] Extremely low weight preterms most often have problems with mathematics (37% of children), followed by language difficulties in 24% and problems reading in 23%; and, in these same three areas, performance is even worse for children born below 750 g. 65 These cognitive deficiencies contribute to the high rates of repeated years at school (22-26%), requirements for special school (19-22%) or private tutoring (11-15%). 4 …”

Section: Prognosis At School Agementioning

confidence: 99%