Strengthening Early Intervention for Very Preterm Infants

In this issue of Pediatrics, Spittle et al¹ provide an important follow-up report at 8 years to their randomized trial of early intervention for very preterm infants. The intervention was delivered over 9 sessions during the first year of life and was based on a strong theoretical approach. The well-defined set of services aimed to enhance caretakers’ ability to foster the development of their children and to reduce parental stress.² At planned follow-up assessments at 2 and 4 years of age,^3,4 the authors found no difference between the intervention and control groups in the children’s cognitive, language, and motor scores. They did observe a persistent effect of the intervention on decreased mental health symptoms in caretakers at both points. The current follow-up was undertaken based on the relationship between child development and parental mental health, with the expectation that the persistent advantage in the...