Although prematurity can affect a child’s future intellectual development, a recent analysis found that it may not be as detrimental to their educational achievement as is commonly believed. That conclusion is based on a study of Florida children between 1992 and 2002. Among the findings:

• About 1.3 million school age children with gestational ages of 23 to 43 weeks were analyzed.
• 65% of children born at 23-24 weeks’ gestation were considered ready to start kindergarten.
• When standardized achievement tests were taken into consideration and confounding variables were factored in, children born at 23-24 weeks’ gestation performed only slightly less well than those children who had been born full term (-0.66 standard deviation).