Associations of motor co-ordination and attention with motor-perceptual development in 3-year-old preterm and full-term children who needed neonatal intensive care.
BACKGROUND
Children who have needed neonatal intensive care (NIC) are considered to be at risk for deficits such as developmental co-ordination disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. By assessing motor-perceptual development, motor co-ordination and attention already at 3 years of age, it might be possible to identify such deficits earlier than they are today.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the motor-perceptual development in a group of 202 NIC children but had no major impairments, to describe associations of deficits in co-ordination and attention with motor-perceptual delays, and to estimate the prevalence of NIC children with combined deficits together with a motor-perceptual delay.


METHODS
Co-ordination and attention in children born very preterm (n = 57), moderately preterm (n = 75) and full-term (n = 70) were observed according to a model for Combined Assessment of Motor Performance and Behaviour while they were assessed using a developmental scale, Motor-Perceptual Development, 0-7 years, MPU.


RESULTS
In two out of 14 MPU areas, a larger proportion of very preterm than of moderately preterm and full-term children had marked developmental delay. Overall, the proportion of NIC children having a motor-perceptual delay increased with increasing incoordination and especially increasing lack of attention. Twenty-one (11%) of the NIC children had different motor-perceptual delays combined with pronounced incoordination and pronounced lack of attention.


CONCLUSIONS
Deficits in co-ordination and attention were associated with motor-perceptual delays in areas important for daily living and development of academic skills. Therefore, to find children at risk for developmental co-ordination disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, assessments of co-ordination and attention should be added to assessments of motor-perceptual development in 3-year-old NIC children.
Hemgren
E
E
Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University Children's Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden. elvira.hemgren@kbh.uu.se
Persson
K
K
D001288:Attention; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000502:physiology; D015931:Intensive Care, Neonatal; D008297:Male; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence