Behavior Problems in Relation to Sustained Selective Attention Skills of Moderately Preterm Children

Attention skills may form an important developmental mechanism. A mediation model was examined in which behavioral problems of moderately preterm and term children at school age are explained by attention performance. Parents and teachers completed behavioral assessments of 348 moderately preterm children and 182 term children at 8 years of age. Children were administered a test of sustained selective attention. Preterm birth was associated with more behavioral and attention difficulties. Gestational age, prenatal maternal smoking, and gender were associated with mothers’, fathers’, and teachers’ reports of children’s problem behavior. Sustained selective attention partially mediated the relationship between birth status and problem behavior. Development of attention skills should be an important focus for future research in moderately preterm children

Sleep disordered breathing: effects of adenotonsillectomy on behaviour and psychological functioning.

UNLABELLED: Children on the adenotonsillectomy waiting list aged 6 years or more were screened by questionnaire and overnight sleep monitoring to identify 12 with a moderate sleep and breathing disorder (SBD) group. They were matched by age and sex with 11 children who had a similar history of snoring and sleep disturbance but without an obvious sleep and breathing problem when monitored (snorer group) and also with a group of ten children most of whom were refered for an unrelated surgical procedure (control group). All children were studied before and 3-6 months after surgery. Pre-operatively the SBD and snorer groups both had significantly more restless sleep than the control group. The SBD group also had significantly more (> 4%) dips in oxygen saturation than the other two groups. After surgery there were no longer any significant differences between the three groups. After adenotonsillectomy the SBD group showed a significant reduction in aggression, inattention and hyperactivity on the parent Conners scale, and an improvement in vigilance on the Continuous Performance Test. The snorer group also improved showing less hyperactive behaviour than pre-operatively and better vigilance. The control groups's behaviour and performance did not change significantly. There were no significant changes in the performance of the Matching Familiar Figures Test in any of the groups. CONCLUSION: Relief of mild to moderate sleep and breathing disorders in children is associated with improved behaviour and functioning. We confirm previous work which suggests that the relation between sleep disordered breathing and daytime problems in children is a causal one