Attention development in infants and preschool children born preterm: a review

A potential mechanism that can explain preterm children's heightened risk for the development of later cognitive and behavioral problems is attention. Attention is the ability of an infant or child to orient to, to shift between and to maintain focus on events, objects, tasks, and problems in the external world, processes which are all dependent on the functioning of attentional networks in the brain. The aim of this paper is to provide a review of the literature on attention development in children born preterm during the first 4 years of life. First, research examining the differences between preterm and full-term children indicates that early attention development in infants born preterm is less optimal and that these differences increase when infants grow into toddlers. Second, studies investigating individual differences within preterm populations reveal the influence of both biological factors and environmental factors. Third, individual differences in early orienting and sustained attention have been shown to be predictive of later attentional, cognitive and behavioral functioning in children born preterm. The importance of long-term follow-up studies, with a focus on individual developmental trajectories in orienting, sustained and executive attention, is emphasized.