%0 Journal Article %A Simms, Victoria %A Gilmore, Camilla %A Cragg, Lucy %A Marlow, Neil %A Wolke, Dieter %A Johnson, Samantha %D 2013 %T Mathematics difficulties in extremely preterm children: evidence of a specific deficit in basic mathematics processing %U https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Mathematics_difficulties_in_extremely_preterm_children_evidence_of_a_specific_deficit_in_basic_mathematics_processing/9369758 %2 https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/ndownloader/files/16980338 %K untagged %X Background. Extremely preterm (EP, <26 weeks gestation) children have been observed to have poor academic achievement in comparison to their term-born peers, especially in mathematics. This study investigated potential underlying causes of this difficulty. Methods. 219 extremely preterm participants were compared with 153 term-born control children at 11 years old. All children were assessed by a psychologist on a battery of standardised cognitive tests and a number estimation test assessing children’s numerical representations. Results. EP children underperformed in all tests in comparison to the term controls (the majority of p’s<.001). Different underlying relationships between performance on the number estimation test and mathematical achievement were found in extremely preterm compared to control children. That is, even after controlling for cognitive ability, a relationship between number representations and mathematical performance persisted for EP children only (EP: r= .346, n= 186, p< .001; Control: r= .095, n=146, p= .256). Conclusion. Interventions for EP children may target improving children’s numerical representations in order to subsequently remediate their mathematical skills. %I Loughborough University