Etiology of persistent mathematics difficulties from childhood to adolescence following very preterm birth

Clayton, Sarah; Simms, Victoria; Cragg, Lucy; Gilmore, Camilla; Marlow, Neil; Spong, Rebecca; Johnson, Samantha

Abstract

Children born very preterm (VP; 0.05), with the exception of writing large numbers and conceptual understanding of arithmetic. In a previous study, 83 of the VP adolescents and 49 of the term-born adolescents were assessed at age 8–10years using measures of the same skills. Amongst these, the between-group difference in mathematics achievement remained stable over time. This study extends findings of a persistent deficit in mathematics achievement among VP children over the primary and secondary school years, and provides evidence of a deficit in factual, procedural and conceptual mathematics skills and in higher order mathematical operations among VP adolescents. We provide further evidence that VP children’s mathematics difficulties are driven by deficits in domain-general rather than domain-specific cognitive skills.

Citation

Clayton, S., Simms, V., Cragg, L., Gilmore, C., Marlow, N., Spong, R., & Johnson, S. (2022). Etiology of persistent mathematics difficulties from childhood to adolescence following very preterm birth. Child Neuropsychology, 28(1), 82-98. https://doi.org/10.1080/09297049.2021.1955847

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 12, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Sep 2, 2021
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: Jul 14, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 3, 2022
• Journal: Child Neuropsychology
• Print ISSN: 0929-7049
• Electronic ISSN: 1744-4136
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 28
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 82-98
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09297049.2021.1955847
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5785202
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09297049.2021.1955847