Evaluación de procesos cognitivos en niños de siete años de edad nacidos pretérmino.

Introduction. Several studies have shown that the cognitive development of premature children is affected. In fact, it appears to be a close relationship between prematurity, executive deficits, learning disorders, language disorders and behavioral problems. Premature children present also difficulties in viso-perceptive tasks and functional integration tasks. Objective. The main goal of this study was to assess cognitive processes (executive functions, viso-perceptual integration, viso-motor coordination, memory, environmental knowledge, language, viso-motor processing and motor skills) in seven-year-old children who were born preterm and to compare them with those of a control group, matching in sociocultural level, sex and age. Subjects and method. 20 children ranging in age between seven years and two months and seven years and 11 months, assigned to two groups (premature vs. control) participated in the present study. A protocol including standardized neuropsychological tests was designed to assess the different cognitive mentioned domains. Results. We observed that there was worse performance in several evaluated domains (v.g., executive functions and viso-motor processing) in premature children than in the control group. Conclusions. There are few studies that explore cognitive processes in hispanic-speaking children born prematurely. In the present study we selected the seven-year age window, a time in life in which essential processes begin –reading, writing and mathematical calculation-. To detect neuropsychological problems that might be influencing the academic achievement of this population, adding new findings to the field of child neuropsychology.