Heidi Feldmen - Born Too Soon

TL;DR

Premature birth can have long-term effects on a child's development, including delays in language and cognitive skills.

Transcript

our last presentation of this session is by Heidi Feldman Heidi is the Ballinger swindles endowed chair in pediatrics she is a developmental and behavioral pediatrician one of his country's experts in this field she has a passion for children who have developmental disabilities and has a very robust research effort her focus is on really she's desc... Read More

Key Insights

• 🥳 Premature birth can result in long-term developmental disabilities in children.
• 👋 High-risk infant follower programs help support preterm babies and their families to ensure the best possible outcomes.
• 👶 Slower processing speeds in preterm children can impact language development and learning.
• 🫠 White matter differences in the brain may contribute to these long-term effects and can be associated with functional outcomes like reading abilities.
• 🤍 White matter is dynamic and responsive to experiences, providing potential for interventions to improve outcomes.
• 👶 Multilingual environments do not appear to negatively affect language or executive function skills in preterm children.

Questions & Answers

Q: What percentage of children born prematurely develop disabilities?

10-20% of children born prematurely go on to develop disabling conditions, including vision problems, mobility issues, and learning difficulties.

Q: What are high-risk infant follower programs?

High-risk infant follower programs involve a team of healthcare professionals working together to provide regular care and support for children born prematurely and their families.

Q: How do behavioral studies measure language development in preterm children?

Behavioral studies use tasks that assess how efficiently preterm children process language information, such as eye-tracking experiments that measure reaction time.

Q: Are there interventions that can improve the outcomes of preterm children?

Research is being done to determine interventions that can improve outcomes, such as enhancing the verbal environment, computerized interventions for executive function skills, and interventions to enhance language skills and reading abilities.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Premature birth can lead to disabilities in 10-20% of children born prematurely, including problems with vision, mobility, and learning.

• High-risk infant follower programs have been implemented to support the development of preterm babies and provide the best possible outcomes.

• Behavioral studies have shown that preterm children may have slower processing speeds, which can impact language development and learning.