ABSTRACT

Children born very preterm (VP; <32 weeks’ gestation) have poorer mathematics achievement than term-born peers. This study aimed to determine whether VP children’s mathematics difficulties persist from primary to secondary school and to explore the nature of mathematics difficulties in adolescence. For this study, 127 VP and 95 term-born adolescents were assessed at age 11–15 years. Mathematics achievement was assessed using the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-II. Specific mathematics skills and general cognitive skills were assessed using standardized and experimental tests. VP adolescents had poorer mathematics achievement than term-born adolescents (−10.95 points; 95% CI −16.18, −5.73) and poorer number fact knowledge, understanding of arithmetic concepts, written arithmetic, counting, reading and writing large numbers, and algebra. Between-group differences in mathematics skills were no longer significant when working memory and visuospatial skills were controlled for (p’s >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 8–10 years 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.

摘要

早产儿（VP；妊娠<32 周）的数学成绩比足月出生的同龄人差。本研究旨在确定VP儿童的数学困难是否从小学持续到中学，并探讨青春期数学困难的性质。在这项研究中，127 名 VP 和 95 名足月出生的青少年在 11-15 岁时接受了评估。使用韦氏个人成就测试-II 评估数学成就。使用标准化和实验测试评估特定的数学技能和一般认知技能。VP 青少年的数学成绩比足月出生的青少年差（-10.95 分；95% CI -16.18，-5.73），数字事实知识、对算术概念的理解、书面算术、计数、读写大数和代数也较差。p > 0.05)，除了写大数和对算术的概念理解。在之前的一项研究中，83 名 VP 青少年和 49 名足月出生的青少年在 8-10 岁时使用相同技能的测量方法进行了评估。其中，数学成绩的组间差异随着时间的推移保持稳定。这项研究扩展了 VP 儿童在小学和中学期间数学成绩持续不足的发现，并提供了 VP 青少年在事实、程序和概念数学技能以及高阶数学运算方面存在缺陷的证据。我们提供了进一步的证据，表明 VP 儿童的数学困难是由一般领域的缺陷而不是特定领域的认知技能驱动的。