Preschool miscarriages

Every parent of a premature baby, in the first two years of his life, knows how important it is to monitor the development and medical condition of his child. The growing premature baby is closely monitored by doctors and health professionals in the child's development. Also, studies show that early and intensive intervention as much as possible enables a better quality of life later in the premature baby's life.

Some of the premature babies (about 8-15% of the premature population) will grow up to be happy and happy children with complex developmental difficulties that require treatment in special education settings and continued developmental treatments throughout their lives.

Most of the preemies, approximately 70% of the preemie population will grow up to be happy and happy children with mild to moderate developmental difficulties, will be integrated into regular education settings with the need for child development treatments.

The rest of the premature babies (note a very small percentage of them), will grow up without any developmental difficulties.

This time we will refer to the premature population - in the second group - who are integrated into regular education settings, kindergartens and schools, and need continued follow-up and developmental treatment.

It is known from the professional literature that children born prematurely are 2-4 times more likely than a child born on time to be diagnosed with attention and concentration difficulties accompanied by academic difficulties. In preschool age this will be characterized by high distraction, difficulty finishing tasks, difficulties in perceiving color, quantity, shape. Sometimes difficulties are expressed in drawing abilities and fine skills. Sometimes these children show language difficulty both in expression (steering and conversation skills) and in language comprehension (understanding a story, understanding instructions, etc.). 40-80% Premature children show sensitivity/over-reactivity in preschool age which is manifested in avoidance of different textures (sand/dough), sensitivity to noise, sensitivity to vestibular experiences such as a swing and carousel (related to the balance organ in the ear) and more. Some premature babies (30-50%) will show coordination difficulties which will manifest in multiple falls, difficulty in jumping/ball games/cycling.

Some premature babies will still have difficulties falling asleep, gradual awakening and continuous sleep even at preschool age. Some will show eating difficulties that are more characterized by picky eating, a disorganized eating environment, eating too small or too many amounts and too long or too short eating times.

Not all premature babies will see all the difficulties and some will see several difficulties which are combined together.

A premature child who grows up with developmental difficulties and whose environment does not understand and does not take care of his difficulties, because he is no longer premature and is a child in a normal education, sweet and cute and "all children grow up" can grow into more difficulties (a growing snowball) and emotional and behavioral problems due to his difficulties.

Sentences I heard from parents:

"He's playful - so let him run around a lot, why should he sit and play" (to learn and practice fine skills)

"He's lazy so he doesn't move" (there are no lazy children, maybe he fell a lot so he doesn't dare anymore or maybe he didn't succeed so he gave up)

"He will grow up - in the end everyone is talking" (on the way he will be frustrated - the frustration can cause the child to have behavioral problems or avoidance and withdrawal)

"He keeps falling - how awkward" (this is a really unpleasant experience for Paul a lot)

"So that he doesn't touch the sand and the dough" (true - you don't have to, but it is often also linked to eating problems and pickiness in food)

True, every child with developmental difficulties needs treatment and every child who is not treated will drag the difficulty after him.

But it is important to remember something unique to premature babies! Premature babies are born with a less mature brain, many studies show that premature babies (even at late weeks) have less brain tissue that develops outside the womb compared to full-term babies - that is, they have less to work with... Therefore, there is an increase in the general population in the incidence of attention and learning difficulties.

I scared you... right... but - the encouraging statistic means that as long as we treat prematurity, recognize the difficulties before school, we can influence learning and the brain's ability to learn and grow to be a person with a good quality of life (in terms of indicators of education, economy and health) - how amazing!

Finally, some recommendations:

Identify the difficulty early - if you see a difficulty, go check it out
Continue developmental monitoring routinely until first grade
listen and implement at home the recommendations of the staff caring for the child

Wishing prosperity and blossoming to all premature babies and their parents

Curtin songs
Has a bachelor's degree in physical therapy (BPT), a master's degree in occupational therapy (M.Sc in OT), neurodevelopmental therapy - the Bobet NDT approach and a clinical instructor
In addition, the songs of the member of the executive committee of the Lehab association - for premature infants in Israel