Preschool motor skills of children born prematurely and not diagnosed as having cerebral palsy.
J Dev Behav Pediatr, 9 (4):
189--193 (August 1988)Abstract
To evaluate the preschool motor skills of children born prematurely, we examined 90 children who were participating in a longitudinal follow-up program at 4 1/2 years corrected age. Children with major neurological impairments, such as cerebral palsy, were excluded from this investigation. Study subjects' gestational ages ranged from 24 to 36 weeks. Both gross and fine motor function were assessed with standardized instruments. Overall, the later motor development of these children was reassuringly intact and within the average range on all measures. Nevertheless, extremely low birth weight (less than 1000 g) children as a group displayed significantly inferior skills in all motor functions. Symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage was also associated with significantly poorer motor performance.