title: Reading deficits in very low birthweight children are associated with vocabulary and attention issues at the age of seven.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This Swedish study compared reading skills between seven-year-old children with a very low birthweight (VLBW) and controls with a normal birthweight, exploring associations between reading variables and cognition, parent-rated behaviour, perinatal factors and family factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied 51 VLBW children, with no major neurodevelopmental impairments and attending their first year at a regular school, and compared them with the 51 sex- and age-matched controls. The test battery, carried out at 7.8 ± 0.4 years of age, included reading skills, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - III and the Child Behaviour Checklist.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Very low birthweight children with a mean birthweight of 1105 g (± 291 g) and a gestational age of 28.8 (± 2.2) weeks scored significantly lower in all reading subtests and cognition and demonstrated more behavioural problems than normal birthweight controls. We also found significant associations between poor vocabulary, combined with attention problems, and phonological awareness, rapid naming and spelling control. Perinatal factors had no association with reading function, and socio-economic factors had very few.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Very low birthweight children demonstrated deficits in all reading domains and had poorer cognition and more behavioural problems at the age of seven, with reading ability related to vocabulary and attention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Paediatrics, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Ingemar
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Leijon
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Ryhov County Hospital, Jönköping, Sweden.|Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Fredrik
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ingemansson
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Paediatrics, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.|Department of Quality and Patient Safety, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wadsby
authors.affiliation: Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Samuelsson
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013548:Sweden; D014825:Vocabulary; D014888:Wechsler Scales
keywords: Behavioural problems; Parental factors; Reading ability; School children; Very low birthweight