New Report Suggests Premature Children Should Be Treated As ‘Special Needs’ In School

According to the Telegraph, health experts in the UK are now calling on children who were born prematurely to be treated as “special needs” pupils and to be monitored closely throughout primary school. This moves comes after a recent cohort study by the University of Warwick (UW),showed strong evidence that children born prior to 34 weeks have poorer reading and math skills, will have lower incomes in adulthood and are less likely to own their home by the age of 42, compared with those born at full term. But despite many premature babies taking longer than their peers to learn once in school, "both teachers and educational psychologists receive little formal training about the effects of pre-term birth on children’s long term development and learning, and are often not aware of appropriate strategies to support pre-term children in the classroom,” explains Samantha Johnson from the University of Leicester, one of the experts involved in the report. In fact, according to a report by the Nuffield Foundation, 8-out-of-10 teachers treat premature children just like any other pupil. Something experts now warns has to change. “Our findings lead us to recommend that all pre-term children born before 34 weeks of gestation may benefit from regular follow-up after discharge from hospital," Professor Dieter Wolke from the University of Warwick said. “Interventions are required around the time of school entry to facilitate pre-term children to have an optimal start to their schooling career. Delayed school entry is not recommended on current evidence, but more research is needed.”