Severe small size for gestational age and cognitive function: catch-up phenomenon possible.
OBJECTIVE
We sought to compare cognitive functioning in children born with birthweight <3% vs ≥3% for gestational age (GA) between 9 months and kindergarten.


METHODS
Nonanomalous singletons from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort were included. Associations between weight for GA and cognitive functioning were examined using a series of confounder-adjusted general linear models.


RESULTS
Of 3633 cohorts, 585 (16%) were <3% for GA. At 9 months, cognitive performance of newborns <3% was about 12 percentile points lower than their normal counterparts (P < .001). By 2 years, however, no significant cognitive differences between these groups were observed (P = .668). Academic performance at preschool age (around 3.5 years) was not different for reading (P = .245) or math (P = .880), nor different at kindergarten age.


CONCLUSIONS
Newborns <3% for GA exhibit catch-up cognitive functioning by 2 years, with relatively no decrements in academic functioning observed by kindergarten.
Department of Psychology, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA.
James F
JF
Paulson
Suneet P
SP
Chauhan
James B
JB
Hill
Alfred Z
AZ
Abuhamad
D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007236:Infant, Small for Gestational Age; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D014481:United States