Impact of birth complication and early medical illness on cognitive abilities and academic attainment of children and adolescents

Abstract

The study focused on birth complication and early medical illness as
detrimental developmental factors having adverse impact on children and
adolescents’ cognitive abilities and academic attainment. To assess cognitive
abilities Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fourth edition (WISC-IV) was
administered on 44 (26 boys, 18 girls) students of primary and secondary level
schools of Dhaka city. The performance of last two consecutive school
examinations was taken as a measure of academic attainment. The results
revealed that higher percentages of students who had serious medical illness
during early childhood demonstrated poor academic attainment. It has also
revealed significant difference in students’ working memory as well as verbal
working memory in terms of academic achievements and serious medical illness
during childhood. The results of this study have implications for early screening
of children with developmental risk factors for early identification of possible
poor cognitive abilities and poor academic attainment.