39 SIGNIFICANCE OF PRE-, PERI- AMD POSTNATAL EVENTS FOR LANGUAGE, COGNITIVE AND NEUROLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT IN TERM AND PRETERM CHILDREN AGED 4|[ndash]|7 YEARS

摘要

The significance of pre-, peri- and postnatal variables for the developmental outcome of 531 preterm and 128 term children at the age of 4-7 years is reported. Intelligence testing was carried out at the ages of 4, 5 and 7 years (Snijders-Oomen nonverbal intelligence test, Wechsler preschool and primary scale of intelligence). Language development was assessed by the Illinois test of psycholinguistic abilities at age 5 and neurological development by Touwen's examination at age 4, 5 and 6.Our results demonstrate that language, nonverbal intelligence and neurological development are differently affected by pre-, peri- and postnatal events. Language development was strongly correlated with postnatal variables (e.g. socio-economic status), while perinatal variables (e.g. Prechtl's perinatal optimality score) had only a minor influence and prenatal variables (e.g. minor malformation score) were of no significance. Nonverbal intelligence showed essentially the same correlation matrix as language development, but was more affected by perinatal variables. Neurological development was not related to postnatal variables, but was significantly correlated to pre- and perinatal variables. Prematurity, and in particular intrauterine growth retardation, increased the influence of pre- and perinatal variables on the developmental outcome.