Traiettorie di sviluppo neuropsicologico in bambini di età prescolare nati moderatamente pretermine

[Autom. eng. transl.] INTRODUCTION Despite research on the difficulties of premature birth, the results on evolutionary outcomes are heterogeneous (Aarnoudse-Moens et al., 2012; Kerstjens et al., 2012). This could be explained by biological and environmental, but also methodological aspects. These include the use of chronological age (UCA) or correct age (CA) (Romeo et al., 2012). The objectives of this work are: to compare the neuropsychological development of low-risk preterm children with those born at term at 24 and 36 months and to investigate the usefulness of CA and UCA in the follow-up of preterm. METHOD The sample consists of 104 children (55 preterm; EG mean = 32.01; average weight = 1610.20). The instruments used (with prior consent) are the Bayley-III (Bayley, 2006) and the CBCL 1½-5 (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000). RESULTS The preliminary analyzes (t-test, ANOVA and correlations) seem to highlight: a lower level of performance of preterm in the cognitive and language scales at 24 (t = 5.79, p <.001; t = 3.32, p <.001) and a 36 (t = 1.98, p <.05; t = 3.09, p <.01) months; the presence of a delay in preterm with UCA in the development of cognitive skills between 24 and 36 months (F = 3.930, p <.05); significant correlations between scores at Bayleys, both for CA and for UCA, and: a) gestational age (24 months) (ρ = .468, p <.001); b) days of hospitalization (36 months) (ρ = -.449, p <.01); c) presence of anxious / depressive and aggressive traits (36 months) (ρ = .479, p <.05; ρ = .514, p <.01). CONCLUSIONS The data indicate that preterm children have greater difficulties in particular in cognitive development, even if the evolutionary gap seems to be reduced over the years. The use of the CA and the UCA has shown that the use of the CA is useful up to 2 years. The results show that the biological variables at birth influence the development of preterm children up to 24 months, while their performance at 36 months appears to be influenced by several factors such as the behavioral traits of the child and the days of hospitalization.