Abstract

The influence of birthweight, weight adecuacy to gestational age and gestational age on learning at elementary school was studied in two groups of 82 children each, aged 7 to 8 years, all born in Arica´s regional hospital at northern Chile in 1980. Children at the first group had low birthweights, while those of the second group weight more than 2.500 grs at birth, but both groups where similar in socioeconomic aspects and gender distribution. After dismissal of four subjects in each group, because of clearcut mental deficiency, low birthweight children (N:78) had significantly lower achievement in mean reading (53.07 vs 61.91, p< 0.001), writing (12.23 vs 13.68, p<0.05), errors in reading (54.22 vs 60.27) significantly lower levels of achievement in reading (54.22 vs 60.27, p<0.05) and lecture comprehension (42.04 vs 48.58, p<0.001) scores. Children born prematurely (n:50) had significantly lower levels of achievement in reading (53.88 vs 59.9, p<0.05) and errors in reading (53.78 vs 58.88, p<0.05) than children who where full-term babies (n:106). Those who were small for gestational age (n:59) (SGE) showed greater development of visual motor integration (111.49 vs 100.72, p<0.05) than the group who were adequate (AEG) (n:97). These results support the need of preventive education programs for these high- risk groups.