Professor Samantha Johnson and the PRISM (Premature Infants’ Skills in Mathematics) Study team developed a new e-learning resource for teachers to help explain the impact being born preterm can have on a child’s development and learning, as well as practical ways teachers can support them at school. The e-learning resource is now free to schools and teachers throughout the world at www.pretermbirth.info

Copyright: PRISM

In previous studies, the researchers had found out that education professionals lack knowledge and training about the long term consequences of preterm birth and how to support children in the classroom.To address this, they developed an e-learning resource for teachers to tell them about the long term effects of preterm birth and to provide them with strategies they can use to support the learning of preterm children at school. The resource was co-designed with stakeholders, including teachers, educational psychologists, parents of children born preterm, and young adults who were born preterm themselves. It comprises evidence-based information about what preterm birth is, how it may affect children’s development and learning, and what can be done to support them in the classroom.

They also evaluated the resource and showed that it significantly improves teachers’ knowledge of outcomes following preterm birth and their confidence in supporting preterm born children in the classroom. The researchers hope that use of this resource might be a significant step forward in improving educational support for children born preterm.

The development of the resource was funded by Action Medical Research (www.action.org)

The e-learning resource is available at www.pretermbirth.info

Go HERE to listen to a podcast by the educational publisher Times Educational Supplement in which Professor Samantha Johnson explains more about the resource and about how the kinds of support preterm children do in school.