‘Premature children should start school later’
|Published
Infants born at a very low weight or more than five weeks early are more likely to become introverted, risk averse and neurotic in later life, experts warned. Infants born at a very low weight or more than five weeks early are more likely to become introverted, risk averse and neurotic in later life, experts warned.
London - Some premature babies should start school a year late to give their brains time to develop, say experts.
A British study found that boys and girls born early are 50 percent more likely to fail the reading, writing and maths tests set at the end of their second year in school.
Children born prematurely – classed as before 37 weeks of pregnancy – are also more likely to have dyslexia, deafness and other problems that class them as having special educational needs.
However, the Bristol University study suggested that some of their difficulties are due to them starting school too early. Campaigners argue that if the children’s start date was based on their due date, rather than the date they actually arrived, they would do better.
Children in England generally start school in the September after their fourth birthday. This means that a child born prematurely on August 31 would begin a year earlier than they would have if they had been carried to full-term.
The researchers analysed data on almost 12 000 children. More than 700 were born prematurely. Overall, premature children were more likely to do badly in second-year school tests. More than a third had special educational needs, compared with less than a quarter of their full-term classmates.
What was most striking from the study was the finding that those children who were born close to the cut-off date for starting school – and so began their education earlier than they would have done otherwise – did worse.
This suggests their problems weren’t solely the result of an early birth. Instead their brains were still maturing and they might have done better if they had started school later.
“It is easy to look at a premature child’s date of birth and think that is how old they are but they are not that old,” said researcher Dr David Odd, whose study published in the journal PLoS ONE. “Development doesn’t speed up just because you are born earlier.”
Sir Al Aynsley-Green, a former Children’s Commissioner for England, said: “Experts must argue for a change in policy so that the school entry age for children born prematurely is based on their expected due date rather than their premature date of birth.”
The Department for Education said it is already possible to defer a child’s school start date or request they attend part-time to begin with. - Daily Mail