COGNITION, SCHOOL PERFORMANCE, AND BEHAVIOR IN VERY-LOW-BIRTH-WEIGHT AND NORMAL BIRTH-WEIGHT CHILDREN AT 8 YEARS OF AGE - A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY

Cognition, school performance, and behavior were assessed at 8 years o f age in 132 very low birth weight (VLBW) children free of major senso rineural impairments, and the results were contrasted with a randomly selected control group of normal birth weight (NBW) children. Consider ing their fragile beginnings, the majority of VLBW children were devel oping normally and were reading and performing in most academic and so cial areas as well as the NBW children. However, VLBW children were si gnificantly inferior to NBW children on tests of cognition, including tests of intelligence and visual memory, and on teacher's reports of m otor skills and initiative. In addition, proportionally more VLBW chil dren (20.5%) than NBW children (5.9%) were reported by their parents t o be not coping at school.