The two learning difficulties of premature babies that are only seen with the passage of time

For this reason, they warn from this institution, “knowing how prematurity affects neurocognitive processes can serve to implement intervention programs that address these cognitive skills.” early form in order to prevent educational difficulties and permanent disadvantages.”

The research indicates that these problems focus, above all, on the acquisition of mathematical skills, where premature children can encounter the main difficulties. The systematic review has been published in the prestigious journal Educational Research Review (Q1). The authors are UNIR researchers Javier Tubío Ordóñez, Verónica López Fernández and Sandra Santiago Ramajo, together with Mónica Gutiérrez Ortega, from the University of Valladolid.

Mathematical skills involve everything from learning basic strategies (such as classification, discrimination and comparison of sizes and quantities), which children learn naturally during their development through interaction and experimentation with their environment, to learning the processes involved in solving complex problems. It is for this reason, UNIR explains, that some difficulties may become evident only when the child must face a certain level of demand in mathematics, going unnoticed in previous stages.

In fact, according to several estimates collected in this study, children born prematurely are up to 50% more likely to need educational support compared to children born full term. Likewise, several of the recent studies analyzed showed that the lower school performance It continues beyond adolescence, negatively influencing the quality of life as adolescents and young adults of children born prematurely.

Fifteen million premature births

In the last three decades, this organization points out, the number of premature babies has increased considerably throughout the world. An estimated 15 million babies are born prematurely each year. Premature births can be classified as extremely preterm (those that occur before 28 weeks), very preterm (between 28 and 32 weeks of gestation), and preterm (which would include all those born before 37 weeks).

It is true, they acknowledge, that advances in survival have reduced the presence of serious motor, sensory and/or cognitive disorders. However, there is growing concern about the appearance of more subtle consequences, which may go unnoticed during the early stages of development and become more evident in the long term, such as learning difficulties, behavioral problems or deficits in functional functions. executives.

Neurocognitive processes affected

The objective of this study was to obtain a broad perspective, through recent empirical studies that analyze mathematical skills in children, adolescents and young people born prematurely. Thus, some of the neurocognitive processes that can be affected and have an impact on the learning of mathematics in premature children are the working memory, sustained attention, reaction timenumerical reasoning, the application of mathematical concepts or reading comprehension, which makes it difficult to understand mathematical problems.

“Knowing how prematurity affects neurocognitive processes, which underlie poor academic results, can help initiate effective early interventions and prevent problems such as dyscalculia or mathematical anxiety from developing in the future,” says Javier Tubío Ordóñez, researcher. from UNIR and one of the authors of the study.

Reading skills

In another study, UNIR researchers Javier Tubío, Aitor Álvarez Bardón and Alejandro González Andrade, together with Mónica Gutiérrez Ortega, from the University of Valladolid, and Esperanza Vergara Moragues, from the University of Cádiz, analyzed how premature birth influences the reading skills. It was also a systematic review of the scientific literature, published in the journal Cognitive Processing.

The results indicated that premature children have worse performance in reading and spelling. In extremely premature children it extends to all processes related to reading, except in aspects such as rapid naming and phonological awareness. These two UNIR studies highlight the need to implement intervention programs that address these skills from the beginning to prevent the educational difficulties and permanent disadvantages that can be associated with preterm birth.

Benefits of physical activity

Likewise, the UNIR team of researchers formed by Javier Tubío, Aitor Álvarez Bardón, Alejandro González Andrade and Sandra Santiago Ramajo carried out another investigation to learn about the benefits of physical activity in improving executive functions and mathematical skills in children. of Primary.

«We have been able to conclude that the practice of physical exercise throughout life, especially during childhood, has a positive impact on cognitive development. This can be explained in part because physical activity encourages certain phenomena to occur that are neuroprotective and favor neuronal plasticity, which has a fundamental role in development,” says Tubío.

In the studies analyzed in this review, published in the Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, it is observed that when physical activity programs designed as cognitively demanding or “enriched” are applied, better cognitive benefits are obtained, especially in skills considered as functions. executives.

«Practicing sports in which rules must be followed requires a higher level of attentional alertness. “Sports with an opponent or as a team involve training skills such as anticipation, inhibition, cognitive flexibility or the ability to make inferences about the behavior of others, all of which are fundamental skills that can be generalized to other levels such as mathematics.” asserts this UNIR researcher.