Low birth weight an indicator of delayed development at age five - study

Researchers were asked by the Department of Education to look at the factors affecting the development of five-year-old children across England as part of IELS (sometimes known as Baby PISA), organised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

They found that low birthweight is associated with ‘statistically significantly’ lower levels of emergent literacy, emergent numeracy, working memory and physical development at age five.

The largest development gap was found in physical development, which was equivalent to approximately nine months, while these children were also three months behind in emergent literacy, and four months behind in emergent numeracy and working memory. Children’s social-emotional development was not affected.

Eleven percent of the sample of 2,577 children from 191 schools in England weighed 2.5 kg or less at birth, which is the national definition of low birth weight. As a representational sample, this is slightly more than the national average of just under seven per cent.

Low birthweight is associated with a variety of factors ranging from being a young mother; to pregnancy complications; premature birth and maternal health issues involving nutrition, smoking and alcohol intake.

Caroline Sharp, research director at NFER, whose team analysed the study that was carried out between 2017 and 2020, told Nursery World, ‘In our sample, there were more children who had low birthweight than premature birth alone, the latter which is widely associated with low birthweight. Health visitors are concerned about premature birthweight but it’s not something that’s usually highlighted past the early months of development.

‘This research, however, demonstrates the impact that low birthweight can have on young children’s development across a number of measures. It is not the intention to give parents another thing to worry about. But this new information shows that we must raise awareness of this issue, monitor the development of children with low birthweight for longer, and provide additional support for their development in these areas.’