TY - JOUR

T1 - Visual perception, fine motor, and visual-motor skills in very preterm and term-born children before school entry–observational cohort study

AU - Dathe, Anne Kathrin

AU - Jaekel, Julia

AU - Franzel, Julia

AU - Hoehn, Thomas

AU - Felderhoff-Mueser, Ursula

AU - Huening, Britta M.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2020/12

Y1 - 2020/12

N2 - Very preterm children (<32 weeks gestation at birth; VP) are at risk of developmental difficulties. Specific functional difficulties and delays in visual perception, fine motor, and visual-motor skills have received little research attention, although they are critical for daily life and school readiness. Our aim was to assess these skills in a contemporary cohort of 60 VP and 60 matched term-born children before school entry. We administered the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC-2) and the Developmental Test of Visual Perception (DTVP-2). Linear and logistic regressions were run to test group differences in performance and rates of developmental delay in visual perception, fine motor, and visual-motor skills. Very preterm children had lower scores than term-born children in visual perception (β = −0.25; p = 0.006), fine motor (β = −0.44; p < 0.001), and visual-motor tasks (β = −0.46; p < 0.001). The rate of developmental delay (<−1 SD) was higher among VP in visual perception (odds ratio (OR) = 3.4; 95% confidence interval (CI 1.1–10.6)), fine motor (OR = 6.2 (2.4–16.0)), and visual-motor skills (OR = 13.4 (4.1–43.9)) than in term-born controls. VP children are at increased risk for clinically relevant developmental delays in visual perception, fine motor, and visual-motor skills. Following up VP children until preschool age may facilitate early identification and timely intervention.

AB - Very preterm children (<32 weeks gestation at birth; VP) are at risk of developmental difficulties. Specific functional difficulties and delays in visual perception, fine motor, and visual-motor skills have received little research attention, although they are critical for daily life and school readiness. Our aim was to assess these skills in a contemporary cohort of 60 VP and 60 matched term-born children before school entry. We administered the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC-2) and the Developmental Test of Visual Perception (DTVP-2). Linear and logistic regressions were run to test group differences in performance and rates of developmental delay in visual perception, fine motor, and visual-motor skills. Very preterm children had lower scores than term-born children in visual perception (β = −0.25; p = 0.006), fine motor (β = −0.44; p < 0.001), and visual-motor tasks (β = −0.46; p < 0.001). The rate of developmental delay (<−1 SD) was higher among VP in visual perception (odds ratio (OR) = 3.4; 95% confidence interval (CI 1.1–10.6)), fine motor (OR = 6.2 (2.4–16.0)), and visual-motor skills (OR = 13.4 (4.1–43.9)) than in term-born controls. VP children are at increased risk for clinically relevant developmental delays in visual perception, fine motor, and visual-motor skills. Following up VP children until preschool age may facilitate early identification and timely intervention.

KW - Fine motor

KW - Preschool age

KW - Term-born children

KW - Very preterm

KW - Visual perception

KW - Visual-motor

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85107447367&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/children7120276

DO - 10.3390/children7120276

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85107447367

VL - 7

JO - Children

JF - Children

SN - 2227-9067

IS - 12

M1 - 276

ER -