Developmental Screening: An Investigation of the Effects of Preterm Birth and Birth Weight on Delays in the Improvement of Communication, Motor, Cognitive, and Social-Emotional Skills in Children Using Ages & Stages Questionnaires (ASQ3TM

Early childhood is a critical period for the development of cognitive, linguistic, social, and motor abilities. Due to the importance of early detection of developmental delays in children, this study aims to investigate the effect of preterm birth and birth weight on the developmental skills among children aged 12-36 months.

In this cohort study, 125 children of 12 to 36 months of age from Khorramabad, Iran, were evaluated in three groups, i.e. preterm group (59 children), low birth weight group and term infants group (21 children), and finally children with average birth weight and term infants group (45 children). This evaluation was carried out using the Ages & Stages Questionnaires-Third Edition in five developmental areas. Five models of logistic regression were separately used for modeling the effect of the “age and birth weight of children”. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS v.22 software using logistic regression analysis, where the significance level was 0.05.

According to the findings related to child screening, the percentage of developmental delay in at least one area was 49.6%, where the highest and lowest rates of delay were 15.2% and 6.4% in fine motor and problem-solving skills, respectively. Moreover, 9.6% of the children were abnormal in communication skills, and 9.6% and 8.8% of the children were bnormal in gross motor skills and personal-social skills respectively. Based on the logistic regression method, the relationships between “the age and birth weight of children” and the state of communication skill development (P=0.235), fine motor skills (P=0.125) and personal-social skills (P=0.307) were insignificant but noticeable.

Low birth weight in full-term infants is a risk factor for delayed communication and fine motor skills, while preterm birth is a risk factor for delayed personal-social skills. Preterm birth and low birth weight are risk factors for developmental delays in children, which require early screening to diagnose and prevent their future complications.