hi my daughter was born 5 weeks early. she has an iq of 115 to 120. she does have other issues, like she won’t look you in the eye when you talk to her, she still plays in liquid soap like a 2 yr old, she’s 9 now. do you think or could there be a link between late-preterm and autism (asperger’s syndrome)? she has a lot of impulse control issues, like she can’t stop herself from doing some of the things she does. she has a low attention rate, she gets bored very easy. i hope someone is planning on doing some research on the older kids that are late-preterm. all the pediatricians make it sound like it’s in my head.

This is interesting data and I will follow future studies. My son was born late preterm at 35 weeks. He had numerous problems in his first two months including hyperbilirubinemia above 25 and claustridium difficile infection that recurred twice. We were counseled that he could well suffer cognitive deficits due to the prolonged severe jaundice and emotional or digestive problems secondary to the inflammatory bowel disease. His i.q. is very high, and he is a happy well-balaced 14-year-old with many friends and interests. I just want other parents to know that the prognistications are not always correct.

Hi there! I have 3 brothers and I was the only one born over 2 months premature. I was in a incubator for weeks, but after a few more weeks I was very healthy and have never had any problems healthwise in my life. In fact, the Doctors always comment that I am much healthier than they are :) When I was 7, I become lazy and bored in school, not studying and getting poor grades. My parents go me tested and they Doctor found that my IQ was over 140 and I was in fact, just bored and needed more stimulous.

Anyway, don´t worry or lose hope if your baby was born premature, I can tell you that my friends that were not born premature are not: smarter, healthier or emotionally superior to myself :)

My son was born at 36 weeks, at 6 years old he was diagnosed mildly ADHD. Over the years his hypo behaviour has improved (we never used rittalin). But his learning has been slow and easily forgets what he has learned a few weeks before, his teacher said that most children need to be shown a couple of times but he needs to be shown a lot more. He is now 12 years old and still has learning difficulties. This article is very interesting as I’ve always wondered if it was because he was born early that he had learning problems? I also have a friend who’s daughter who was born early and also has learning difficulties who is the same age as my son. Very interesting… I look forward to updates

I disagree with this article I was born early, and I have no issues with learning.

Very interesting article. My son now 21 years old has struggled all threw his schooling. He is now having problems finding work. He has struggled socially also. He shares some autism traits with his younger brother. He is a severe asthmatic and had/has some food intolerance. I’ve been wondering if he may be undiagnosed autistic. I do know his iq is low (80). After reading this article, perhaps it’s not autism, perhaps it’s because he was born 5 1/2 weeks early? What help is out there? Where do we go now?

Hi my case is so similar to maureen taylor my son now 7 was born at 36 weeks and he has lots of problems focusing and staying on task all he’s teachers have told me same thing he needs to focus he is a good learner a good student loves to read but he doesn’t like to socialize alot with other kids and I always feel like he is a lil behind than other kids its if everything is a little more harder for him im always wondering if it was becasause he was born at 36weeks.everybody I talk to thinks im crazy so thank you for sharing your stories now I don’t feel alone.