The profile of very preterm children on academic achievement. A cross-population comparison with children with specific learning disorders

Background: Very preterm (VPT) children showed delays in reading, spelling and maths, but their academic achievement profile is not clearly understood. Aims: VPT children were compared with children with specific learning disorders (SLD) and typically developing (TD) children on academic achievement, considering cognitive and linguistic phenotypic markers. A learning profile analysis was also performed. Methods: We included 170 10-year old monolingual Italian-speaking children (37 VPT, 28 SLD, 105 TD) assessing cognitive, linguistic and academic skills. Results: On academic achievements VPT children fell behind TD peers in some reading (text speed, comprehension), spelling (non-word), and math (number knowledge, written calculations and problem-solving) tasks. SLD children underperformed in all academic tasks with respect to VPT and TD peers. Concerning cognitive and linguistic phenotypic markers, compared to TD peers, VPT children showed lower scores in verbal IQ and phonological fluency, SLD children in phonological processing and rapid automatized naming. VPT children showed a higher rate of at-risk performance in reading compared to TD group, but a minor percentage of impaired profiles and comorbidity among learning areas compared to SLD group. Conclusions and implications: The academic achievement profile of VPT children shows persistent delays, but it differs to that of SLD children, since delays are less widespread and severe, and differences were found in phenotypic markers and comorbidity. Follow-up programs and effective interventions are needed for VPT children.