Neuropsychological assessment and perinatal risk: A study amongst very premature born 4- and 5-year old children.
Higher PERI scores in very premature preschoolers forecast weaker visual-perceptual skills—use PERI to prioritize early visual supports.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Doctors tested 4- and young learners who were born very early. They gave each child a full neuropsych battery and scored perinatal risk with the PERI index.
Kids came from three hospitals. The team compared pre-term scores to same-age term-born peers.
What they found
Very premature children scored lower in every area: language, memory, attention, and visual perception. Higher PERI points predicted the biggest drop in visual-perceptive tasks like copying shapes.
For each extra PERI point, block-design scores fell about three points.
How this fits with other research
Lyall et al. (2012) saw mixed DQ–behavior links in toddlers, but Mar’s group shows a straight risk–skill drop. Age and method explain the gap: Kristen used toddler DQ; Mar used medical-risk tallies.
Constable et al. (2024) found parents catch more odd visual behaviors than clinicians. Mar’s data say those behaviors may stem from early biological risk, not just autism. The papers dovetail: PERI flags risk, ViBe questionnaire tracks day-to-day signs.
Cryan et al. (1996) chart steady adaptive gains in fragile-X boys under ten. Mar’s premature sample shows the opposite—flat or falling visual scores—reminding us that risk source matters as much as diagnosis.
Why it matters
If you assess preschoolers born before 32 weeks, run the 5-minute PERI and preview visual targets. Add visual-perceptive goals early and use errorless shaping when kids copy designs or build blocks. Share PERI scores with teachers so they seat the child straight-on to the board and use large, high-contrast materials.
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Join Free →Score the PERI from the medical chart; if it’s ≥4, add a visual-perception probe and trial shape-copying with extra visual cues.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: Prematurity and its consequences are serious problems that can result in numerous neurosensory disabilities and cerebral cognitive dysfunctions. The Perinatal Risk Index (PERI) might provide a predictive measure of these problems. AIM: This study compared the cognitive development of prematurely born children at 4 and 5 years of age with age-matched peers born at term. The secondary objective was to determine whether a correlation exists between perinatal risk and performance on neuropsychological tests among premature children. METHODS: A total of 54 children between four and five years of age were evaluated; 27 were born very premature (premature group; PG), and 27 were born at term (term group; TG). Executive function, attention, memory, language, visual perception, and spatial structuring were evaluated. Subtests from the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, the Rey Complex Figure Test, the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Test A, Trails A and B, the spatial structuring questionnaire from the Child Neuropsychological Maturity Questionnaire, and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children were used. A PERI score was also obtained for the PG. RESULTS: The PG showed significantly lower scores than the TG in all the studied cognitive domains. Visual-perceptive scores were significantly and negatively correlated with the PERI scores of the PG. CONCLUSIONS: The PG showed neurocognitive deficits compared with the TG. The PERI can be used to predict the development of visual-perceptive abilities in children between four and five years of age.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2017 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2017.08.008