Attention capacities of preterm and term born toddlers: A multi-method approach

作者：de Jong Marjanneke^*; Verhoeven Marjolein; van Baar Anneloes L

来源：Early Human Development, 2015, 91(12): 761-768.

DOI：10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2015.08.015

• Preterm
• Toddlers
• Orienting
• Alerting
• Executive attention

Objective: Many preterm children show difficulties in attention at (pre)school age. The development of attention capacities of preterm and term toddlers was compared using a longitudinal and multi-method approach at 12, 18 and 24 months.
Method: Attention was measured for 123 preterm (32-36 weeks gestation) and 101 term born children, using eye tracking (18 months), observations during mother-child interaction (18 months), and mother-reports (12, 18, and 24 months).
Results: Preterm toddlers had lower scores than term children on the eye-tracking measures of orienting and alerting. No group differences were found with observations, mother-reports, and the eye-tracking measure of executive attention. More preterm than term children had suboptimal scores on measures of the alerting system at 18 months, possibly indicating difficulties in attention development.
Conclusion: Preterm children showed an increased risk for suboptimal functioning in alerting attention capacities, as early as at a toddler age.

• 出版日期2015-12