School level at 10 years of age in children who required neonatal intensive care in 1980–1989

Abstract

School level at age 10 was studied in two cohorts of children who had required neonatal intensive care (NIC): cohort 1, children born 1980-1985 (n=310); and cohort 2, children born 1986-1989 (n=245); and two control groups. More than 80% of all NIC children of both cohorts attended the appropriate mainstream grade 3 or 4; 12.9% of cohort 1 and 6.8% of cohort 2 were in mainstream grade 2. Six per cent of both cohorts received special education. Among very preterm children (23-31 gestational weeks), 73.5% of cohort 1 and 80.3% of cohort 2 attended grades 3 and 4, while 22.9% and 12.1%, respectively, were in grade 2. Assistance (remedial teaching, personal assistant or special teaching group) was given to 42.4% of cohort 1 in the mainstream (grades 2, 3 and 4) and to 38.2% of cohort 2 in the mainstream. In cohort 2, more very preterm girls than matched controls received assistance (p<0.05); no corresponding difference was found in very preterm boys. Most children with congenital malformations received assistance in mainstream education or received special education. Most NIC children are in mainstream school classes at age 10. Twelve to 23% of very preterm children are 1 y behind. Many NIC children in the school mainstream need assistance at school, but the proportion of children in mainstream education increases markedly with time.