Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Affects Reading and Writing Skills in School-Age Children

Language-based learning was vulnerable with heavy drinking during early pregnancy and binge drinking during late pregnancy.

In the first prospective study to correlate prenatal binge drinking and number of daily drinks with dysmorphic physical features in newborns, the first trimester was the most vulnerable time for the teratogenic effects of alcohol exposure (NEJM JW Pediatr Adolesc Med Feb 29 2012). In-utero alcohol exposure might also affect brain development and increase risk for neurodevelopmental disorders in the absence of physical features of fetal alcohol syndrome. To examine the effect of prenatal alcohol exposure on cognition, researchers in Australia linked prospective data from a randomly selected birth cohort of 4056 infants (86% of the cohort) and education records at age 8 to 9 years.

Based on mothers' reports at 3 months after delivery, 41% of m…

Reviewing Author

Martin T. Stein, MD

Disclosures

Consultant / Advisory boardPearson Neuroscience Advisory Board

Speaker’s bureauAmerican Academy of Pediatrics

RoyaltiesElsevier, Inc.

Editorial boardsJournal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics