Intra-Individual Differences in Development of 18-Month-Old Children Born With Very-Low-Birth-Weight or Extremely-Low-Birth-Weight

The psychological development of 18-month-old children born with very-low-birth-weight (N=10) and extremely-low-birth-weight (N=8) was compared by using the Kyoto Scale of Psychological Development. Children with extremely-low-birth-weight showed significantly lower total DQ than children with very-low-birth-weight (p<.01).Cognitive-Adaptive DQ (p<.01) and Language-Social DQ (p<.01) in children with extremely-low-birth-weight were lower than in children with very-low-birth-weight. Among the children with extremely-low-birth-weight, the DQ of both the Cognitive-Adaptive Area and the Language-Social Area were significantly lower than the Postural-Motor Area (p<.01). These results revealed severe developmental retardation and unbalanced developmental characteristics in 18-month-old children born with extremely-low-birth-weight, whereas the children who had had very-low-birth-weight showed no significant differences among their DQ in 3 different areas, even though corrected age was used.