Conclusion : Positive clinical ly meaningful effects ( > 5 points ) are seen to an age of 36 months , but are no longer present at 5 years
Objective : To determine in a systematic review , whether interventions for infant development that involve parents , improve neurodevelopment at 12 months corrected age or older .
Nine-year outcome of the Vermont intervention program for low birth weight infants.
Twenty-four low birth weight children who had received an experimental intervention ( LBWE ) during the neonatal period , 31 control children who had received no treatment ( LBWC ) , and 36 normal birth weight children were compared . The intervention involved seven hospital sessions and four home sessions in which a nurse helped mothers adapt to their LBW babies . At age 9 , LBWE children scored significantly higher than LBWC children on the Kaufman Mental Processing Composite , Sequential , Simultaneous , Achievement , Arithmetic , and Riddles scales , after statistical adjustments for socioeconomic status . The LBWE children had also advanced more rapidly in school than had LBWC children . Parent ( Child Behavior Checklist ) and teacher ( Teacher 's Report Form ) ratings of school functioning were more favorable for LBWE than LBWC children , with especially strong effects on Teacher 's Report Form scores for academic performance and the attention problems syndrome . At age 9 , LBWE children were not significantly inferior to normal birth weight children on any measure . These results bear out a progressive divergence between the LBWE and LBWC children that first became statistically significant in cognitive scores at age 3 . The findings suggest that the intervention prevented cognitive lags among LBW children and that this eventually had a favorable effect on academic achievement , behavior , and advancement in school . The progression from no significant differences between LBWE and LBWC children on early cognitive and achievement scores to significant and pervasive differences in later functioning argues for long-term follow-up periods to evaluate properly the power of behavioral interventions to compensate for biological risks
Conclusion : Positive clinical ly meaningful effects ( > 5 points ) are seen to an age of 36 months , but are no longer present at 5 years
Objective : To determine in a systematic review , whether interventions for infant development that involve parents , improve neurodevelopment at 12 months corrected age or older .