Faculty of Education, Albacete, University of Castilla La Mancha, 13001 Ciudad Real, Spain.
Faculty of Psychology, National University of Distance Education, 28015 Madrid, Spain.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Apr 4;18(7):3769. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18073769.
The main purpose of this study was to compare the psychomotor development of five-year-old children born preterm and full term. The comparison included physical-motor, perceptual-motor, and socio-relational and affective skills. As low weight is one of the variables that most influences the psychomotor development of premature infants, a secondary aim was to analyze these skills according to their current body mass index (BMI). A prospective simple ex-post facto study was conducted. The sample consisted of 672 five-year-old children enrolled in the third year of early childhood education in the province of Albacete, Spain; 35 of them was born prematurely. Children were evaluated by their teachers using the Checklist of Psychomotor Activities (CPA). The results show that children born preterm had a lower development of their physical-motor skills. In the perceptual-motor field, premature children showed lower scores in the variables related to their body image and body schema, motor dissociation, and visual-motor coordination, as well as in socio-relational and affective aspects. However, the development in laterality, dynamic coordination, motor execution, tonic-postural control, and balance were not affected. These differences were not affected by the current weight, given that the analysis of the BMI indicated no differences in preterm children. This study demonstrated the need to establish protocols oriented to the prevention of the difficulties detected in children with psychomotor high-risk and the needs to reinforce the educational programs in this area to improve the integral development of children born preterm.
本研究的主要目的是比较早产儿和足月儿五岁儿童的心理运动发展。比较包括身体运动、感知运动、社会关系和情感技能。由于低体重是影响早产儿心理运动发展的最重要变量之一，因此次要目的是根据他们当前的身体质量指数 (BMI) 分析这些技能。进行了一项前瞻性简单事后研究。样本由 672 名五岁儿童组成，他们在西班牙阿尔瓦塞特省接受了三年的幼儿教育；其中 35 名是早产儿。儿童由他们的教师使用心理运动活动检查表 (CPA) 进行评估。结果表明，早产儿的身体运动技能发育较低。在感知运动领域，早产儿在与身体形象和身体图式、运动分离、视觉运动协调以及社会关系和情感方面相关的变量中得分较低。然而，侧性、动态协调、运动执行、紧张姿势控制和平衡不受影响。这些差异不受当前体重的影响，因为 BMI 的分析表明早产儿之间没有差异。这项研究表明，需要制定针对高风险心理运动儿童所发现困难的预防方案，并需要加强这一领域的教育计划，以提高早产儿的整体发展。
