Gross motor skills of premature, very low-birthweight Chinese children

We investigated whether premature, very low-birthweight (VLBW) Asian children without major handicap had poor motor skills compared with their normal birthweight counterparts. We compared a cohort of 42 preterm babies with birthweights < 1500 g who participated in a developmental stimulation programme with 69 children of normal birthweight matched for age, gender and paternal education. VLBW children participated in the programme for 3 years and were followed to the age of 5-7 years. The VLBW cohort had significantly lower scores in B- and C-rated skills of the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales. Their total score was also significantly lower. This is in agreement with studies in other populations that found that VLBW children had lower motor scores and that early interventions failed to ameliorate this motor disadvantage.