by Claudia Boyd-Barrett posted in Parenting

Being born prematurely doesn?t doom your child to a life of academic underachievement, according to an uplifting new study out of Northwestern University.
In fact, even extremely premature babies go on to do well at school and some achieve gifted status, the study found.
Researchers examined birth records for 1.3 million babies born in Florida between 1992 and 2002. Some infants were born as early as 23 weeks while others were born as late as 41 weeks, which is considered full term. The study team then matched the birth records with the children?s public school performance records from Kindergarten through 8th grade.
 
Surprisingly, even the earliest and most vulnerable preemies ? those born at 23 to 24 weeks ?performed reasonably well at school, according to the researchers. Two thirds of these preemies were ready for Kindergarten on time, and 2 percent achieved gifted status. The earliest preemies still tended to score lower than their full-term peers on standardized tests. However, there was not much difference in test scores between children born prematurely at 25 weeks or later, and those born at full term.
These findings should be reassuring if you?re the parent of a preemie. Still, the study didn?t take into account whether biological factors or special academic support helped the premature babies thrive. The researchers said they next want to investigate what kind of interventions can help preemies do well in school...