Cognitive Assessment of Very Preterm School-age Children by Chronological vs. Corrected Age

Children born preterm (≤ 37 weeks) are at higher risk of developing cognitive problems and score lower on cognitive developmental assessments than full-term children. The objective of the paper is to analyse the impact of correction for prematurity on IQ scores amongst preterm born children at schoo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yolanda Sánchez-Sandoval, Agustina Lambrisca, Isabel Benavente-Fernández, Laura Lacalle, Melissa L. Martínez-Shaw
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2025-01-01
Series:Psicología Educativa: Revista de los Psicólogos de la Educación
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Online Access: https://journals.copmadrid.org/psed/art/psed2025a4
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Summary:Children born preterm (≤ 37 weeks) are at higher risk of developing cognitive problems and score lower on cognitive developmental assessments than full-term children. The objective of the paper is to analyse the impact of correction for prematurity on IQ scores amongst preterm born children at school age. A sample of 153 Spanish school-age children were assessed using the WISC-V (Full Scale IQ and all indexes). Assessments were re-scored based on corrected age. Pairwise t-tests were used to analyse the difference in mean IQ scores between corrected age and uncorrected (chronological) age. WISC-V IQ scores <70, <85 and <90 were used to define the cognitive impairment level. Age-corrected scores were significantly higher than chronological age scores, except for processing speed. The percentage of children whose scores could be classified as cognitively impaired was not affected by the correction. When evaluating the cognitive skills in preterm children it should always be indicated whether or not prematurity correction was used, even at older ages, in order to avoid possible biases in the interpretation of the results.
ISSN:1135-755X
2174-0526