BEHAVIOURAL DIFFERENCES OF SCHOOL‐AGE CHILDREN WHO WERE SMALL‐FOR‐DATES BABIES

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Twenty-one children aged between five and nine years who were small for gestational age (SFD) at birth and whose intra-uterine head growth was shown by ultrasonography to be slowing before 35 weeks were observed in a special room, using video-cameras. Their behavior was compared with that of 21 matched control children who had had normal birthweight. The children in the SFD group were quieter, more compliant and less active than the control group, and their play behavior suggested that they were less advanced developmentally. The behavior of the mothers of the SFD group showed that they were aware of their child''s problems and tried to compensate for it by teaching the child while they were waiting for the observational session to start, by sitting closer to the child during a drawing test, and by using more words to explain it.