Article Review: Analysis of Healthcare Research in Child Development

This report provides an article review of two research papers. The first paper, by Allotey et al. (2018), is a systematic review and meta-analysis investigating the effects of premature birth on cognitive, motor, behavioral, and academic performances in children. The study quantified the long-term impact of varying degrees of prematurity compared to term births, analyzing data using standardized mean differences and odds ratios. Key findings include lower cognitive scores and deficits in various skills for preterm children, with gestational age significantly influencing IQ differences. The second paper, by Kim et al. (2016), examines the relationships between cognitive, social, and motor skills in pre-kindergarten children with disabilities through a longitudinal study using path analysis. The study aimed to determine the contribution of gross and fine motor skills to the improvement of cognitive and social skills, and how these relationships vary based on disability category. The results indicated that fine motor skills were predictive of cognitive and social skill improvement in these children. The assignment also includes an overview of another study regarding prenatal alcohol exposure and its effects on child behavioral development, including the study's questions, design, and data collection methods.

Running head: ARTICLE REVIEW 1
Article Review
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Institutional Affiliation

ARTICLE REVIEW 2
ARTICLE REVIEW
Journal 1: Allotey et al. (2018)
1. Research Questions: What are the quantitative effects of premature birth at a range of
gestational phases on motor, behavioral, alongside academic, and cognitive performances of
prematurely-born kids compared to term in primary, pre-school and secondary ages, and above?
Aim: The aim of the study was to quantify long-run behavioral, academic, motor, and cognitive
performances of kids born with different extents of prematurity relative to maturely-born kids
(Allotey et al. (2018)).
2. The study design used a systematic review and meta-analysis of literature utilizing a
prospective protocol and complying with guidelines for reporting. This helped quantified the
effects of prematurity birth at a range of gestational phases on academic, cognitive, motor, and
behavioral performance of kids born prematurely compared to term in primary, pre-school and
secondary ages, and above.
3. The data was collected by pooling individual estimates of standardized mean
differences (SMD) alongside odds ratio (OR) with 95% CI utilizing a random effect model. The
analysis of data involved comparing cognitive scores of kids’ cohort born prematurely using
SMD. The association amidst mean gestational age at point of birth alongside cognitive scores
stood computed using weighted liner regression analysis. The researchers computed coefficients
of R-squared to summarize extent of relationship between gestational ages alongside mean
cognitive scores. The researchers compared cognitive performances, academic performance,
motor skills, behavior variations between pre-term and term kids at diverse phases in life

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classified by school age years. SMD meta-analysis was done and each study was weighted by
inverse of its variance, utilizing a random effects model.
4. The study stood limited by test variations utilized in assessing neurodevelopmental
domains and the researcher remained unable to explore certain domains comprehensively.
5. The researchers used a prospective, registered protocol and searched sources free from
language limitation.
6. Pre-term kids showed lower cognitive scores for FSIQ and lower scores in behavior,
motor skills, reading, mathematics and spelling at primary school age which continued to
secondary school age, with an exemption for maths. Gestational age during birth constituted
between 38 and 48 percent of noted IQ difference with ADHD being diagnosed twice as frequent
amongst pre-term kids with a differential effects being noted based on prematurity severity.
Journal 2: Kim et al. (2016)
1. Aim: To examine the relationship amongst cognitive, social and motor skills in a large
and ethnically-diverse sample of pre-school kids who attend public school pre-kindergarten
programs for kids with disabilities (Kim, Carlson, Curby & Winsler, 2016). The study also aimed
at examining the differences in relationships amongst such skills in four different disability
categories. Question: What is the relative contribution of gross and fine motor skills to
improvement in pre-school kids’ social and cognitive skills over time? What are the variations in
such patterns of relationships based on disability category?
2. The design is longitudinal research which used path analysis.
3. Random sampling method was used to recruit 2029 ethnically-diverse children across
4 yearly cohorts that received Pre-K special education services within a big metropolitan public
school system. Path analyses stood performed in the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)

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framework utilizing Stata because it permitted for analysis of more sophisticated models while
simultaneously controlling for pre-score.
4. The limitation is that even though longitudinal, path analysis stays unable to establish
associations’ causality. Another limitation is that the study solely examined motor skills in terms
of social and cognitive skills though it is feasible that other significant skills exist which could
explicate improvement in social and cognitive skills.
5. The ethical protocol included parental consent stood handled within public school or
agency system alongside IRB or ethics approval for assessing and for a confidential and secure
administrative data-sharing agreement stayed obtained via both public school system’s procedure
for review and partaking university IRBs.
6. The result show for pre-K kids with disabilities in development, fine motor skills,
rather than motor skills, stood extrapolative of cognitive alongside social skills improvement,
despite controlling for demographic info and original level of skills.

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References
Allotey, J., Zamora, J., Cheong?See, F., Kalidindi, M., Arroyo?Manzano, D., Asztalos, E., ...
Thangaratinam, S. (2018). Cognitive, motor, behavioural and academic performances of
children born preterm: A meta?analysis and systematic review involving 64 061 children.
BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 125(1), 16-25.
https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1471-0528.14832
Kim, H., Carlson, A. G., Curby, T. W., & Winsler, A. (2016). Relations among motor, social,
and cognitive success in pre-kindergarten children with developmental disabilities.
Research in Developmental Disabilities, 53, 43-60.
http://winslerlab.gmu.edu/pubs/KimCarlsonCurbyWinsler.pdf