{"id":232486,"date":"2026-03-03T14:30:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T20:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/enhancing-neurodevelopmental-outcomes-of-high-risk-infants"},"modified":"2026-03-03T14:30:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T20:30:48","slug":"enhancing-neurodevelopmental-outcomes-of-high-risk-infants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/enhancing-neurodevelopmental-outcomes-of-high-risk-infants","title":{"rendered":"Enhancing Neurodevelopmental Outcomes of High-Risk Infants"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Editorial: A parent-led developmental intervention improved executive function at school age in preterm children, especially in disadvantaged settings, supporting early, home-based approaches for neurodevelopment.<\/p>\n

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In a report of a trial in JAMA Pediatr <\/i>ics<\/i>, Tarouco et al1<\/a><\/sup> describe studying the effect of a parent-led enhanced developmental intervention (EDI) on executive function at school age among children born preterm in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The intervention took place from ages 7 months to 12 months, and children who received parent-led EDI performed significantly better than those in the usual care group across all 4 domains assessed, with the strongest effects noted for motor persistence and inhibition.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

Executive function refers to the set of higher-order cognitive processes involved in emotional self-regulation and independent goal-directed behavior.3<\/a><\/sup> Specifically, executive function comprises 3 major facets, working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility, which form the basis of critical processes such as reasoning, problem-solving, and planning.4<\/a><\/sup> As Tarouco et al1<\/a><\/sup> note, executive function has been found to be more important for school readiness than a child\u2019s IQ or entry-level reading or math skills.5<\/a><\/sup> Children born preterm are more likely to have deficits in executive function as a consequence of numerous factors, including brain injury and reduced brain volume in regions associated with executive functioning (cerebral white matter; frontal, parietal, and temporal cortices; basal ganglia; and cerebellum) compared with term-born controls; medical comorbidities associated with prematurity (eg, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, necrotizing enterocolitis, sepsis) causing further oxidative damage; and neurosensory impairments.6<\/a><\/sup> These deficits lead to academic challenges with lower scores in mathematics, reading, spelling, and writing; increased risk of learning disabilities; and multiple challenges navigating the demands of daily life.7<\/a><\/sup> Given these widespread consequences, interventions addressing executive function are crucial in mitigating developmental delays in preterm infants and improving school success and participation. The neonatal and early infancy periods represent a window of opportunity to leverage the developing brain\u2019s neuroplasticity to enhance long-term social and academic development.8<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

The majority of studies on measuring and improving executive function have been conducted in high-income, typically Western, industrialized countries, which represent a small fraction of the global population.9<\/sup> Environmental and cultural factors, including home familial structure, diet and nutrition, parenting styles, home enrichment, and early life experiences, can vary vastly between high-income settings and low-to-middle-income countries (LMICs). There are a dearth of data surrounding interventions tailored to improving executive function in LMICs and a limited understanding of the factors that are protective for early development. The study by Tarouco et al1<\/sup> adds valuable data relevant to this need. Importantly, the study intervention demonstrated benefit among a study cohort with social disadvantage because the majority of participants were receiving governmental assistance and attending public schools and participant mothers were largely from low socioeconomic strata.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editorial: A parent-led developmental intervention improved executive function at school age in preterm children, especially in disadvantaged settings, supporting early, home-based approaches for neurodevelopment. In a report of a trial in JAMA Pediatr ics, Tarouco et al1 describe studying the effect of a parent-led enhanced developmental intervention (EDI) on executive function at school age among [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,2229,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-mathematics","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232486\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}