ArticlesDevelopmental problems and interactions between mothers and prematurely born children☆,☆☆
Section snippets
Participants
Participants for this study were 49 3-year-old, prematurely born children and their primary caretakers—41 mothers and three grandmothers (two paternal grandmothers and one maternal step grandmother). Two grandmothers had legal custody; the third was the primary caretaker for a child who was in the father's custody after a divorce. There were five sets of twins in this sample. These children were born between October 1985 and March 1990, cared for in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in the
Developmental status
The children were divided into groups based on the results of their developmental assessment. The 49 children had an average IQ of 89.0 (SD, 14.3). Eighteen had IQs below 84 and were considered low IQ. The other 31 children had IQs between 84 and 117.
Language status was determined based on the PEET language domain and the clinical judgements of the developmental testers. Twenty-three children were considered to have a language concern because they had either had a definite concern on the PEET
Discussion
Clearly, when prematurely born 3-year-old children have developmental problems, their interactive behaviors and those of their mothers are affected. When children had low IQs, they spent less time playing and were less responsive to their mothers on the NCATS than children with normal IQs. Their mothers provided fewer play materials and had lower NCATS scores. The mothers of children with language concerns interacted less, talked less, were more negative, and scored lower on the HOME and NCATS
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Deborah Lee, Diane Hudson, Di Liu, Debra B. Miller, and Charlene Garrett for technical assistance.
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Supported by Grant NR01894 from the National Center for Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health.
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Address reprint requests to Diane Holditch-Davis, PhD, RN, FAAN, School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB# 7460, Carrington Hall 214H, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7460.