Neurobehavioral outcomes of preterm infants: Towards a holistic approach

Children born very preterm (VPT; 32 weeks gestation) are at high risk for adverse developmental outcomes, yet not all children fare poorly. Some children born VPT have few or no neurodevelopmental concerns while others have significant impairment in one or more domains. Historically, research has taken a variable-centered approach, reporting rates of impairment in single domains or single assessments as if they are independent from one another. More recently, child-centered approaches have been applied to studying outcomes for preterm children. Child-centered analyses allow us to integrate across multiple measures and domains to more holistically describe groups of children who vary in terms of the severity and co-occurrence of neurodevelopmental and behavioral strengths and difficulties. In this review, we will summarize current research that has taken a “whole child” approach to describing neurodevelopmental outcomes following preterm birth while highlighting implications of this approach for research and clinical practice. We end by describing unanswered questions and areas that are in need of future research.