THE SCHOOL READINESS OF CHILDREN BORN TO MOTHERS MAINTAINED ON METHADONE DURING PREGNANCY

Abstract

Introduction. Research from the early 1980s indicates that there are different neurodevelopmental differences between methadone-exposed and non-exposed infants. However, the extent to which these difficulties translate to later problems in the domain areas of physical health, social-emotional adjustment, approaches to learning, language, and cognition for children born to mothers maintained on methadone during pregnancy, is largely unknown. Accordingly, this research aimed to compare school readiness outcomes between children prenatally exposed to methadone and comparison children at age 4.5 years across five key developmental domains. A secondary aim was to assess the impact of known neonatal, and socio-familial risk factors associated with this population on school readiness outcomes of methadone-exposed children at age 4.5 years. Research Methods. Sixty seven children born to mothers maintained on methadone and 81 comparison children were followed prospectively from birth to age 4.5 years. At age 4.5 years, all children underwent a comprehensive school readiness assessment of health and physical development; social-emotional skills; approaches to learning; language; and cognition. A score < 1SD below the comparison group mean was used to classify children as unready in any one domain. Measures of socio-familial risk were collated from aspects of the maternal interview at the term assessments, based on risk indices used in the research of other at-risk populations. Results. Methadone-exposed children performed worse than comparison children across all school readiness domains. They also had higher odds of being classed as “unready” in each school readiness domain, relative to the control group. They were also