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

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Anne Kathrin Dathe
  • Jäkel, Julia
  • Julia Franzel
  • Thomas Hoehn
  • Ursula Felderhoff-Mueser
  • Britta M. Huening

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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number276
JournalChildren
Volume7
Issue number12
ISSN2227-9067
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2020
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

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

    Research areas

  • Fine motor, Preschool age, Term-born children, Very preterm, Visual perception, Visual-motor

ID: 393158453