My son, Aryi, was born premature. He was born at 26 weeks 6 days gestational age on April 13th 2022. Aryi was supposed to be born July 14th 2022. This makes him 3 months 1 day (13 weeks 1 day) early. This means when his chronological age was 15 months, his corrected age was 12 months. 

     Corrected age is huge when it comes to preemies. When my son was born he had 3 months of fetal development he was missing out on. These 3 months of development instead of occurring inside of me had to occur in the NICU. Therefore, these three months he was not expected to develop as a baby with milestones, but as a fetus. He needed to learn to grow, develop his longs, learn to breathe, keep his body temperature steady, and keep his heart pumping normally. There is no time for holding up your head and rolling over when you need to grow your lungs. 

     This is why you must use corrected age when considering milestones for a premature baby. Holding up their head goes from 3-4 months for a baby born near their due date to 6-7 months for a baby born 3 months early. Rolling over in both directions at 6 months becomes 9. Sitting up at 7-9 months becomes 10-12 months. So, no freaking out when your baby is 7 months and not sitting up on their own because they spent their first 3 months learning to breathe. Everything will happen as your baby is ready and there is no need to worry about it unless your pediatrician says otherwise. 

     Aryi has always been somewhere between his chronological and corrected age in completing his milestones. His gross motor skills as well as his language skills have seemed to come earlier, closer to his chronological age while his fine motor skills have seemed to be developing slower, closer to his corrected age. Every baby is different, this is just a pattern I have picked up on from observing my own child. 

     Motivation also has a lot to do with what skills your baby does or doesn’t want to work on. There is no need to crawl correctly when you can commando crawl at lightning speed. There is no need to walk when you can cruise in a small home. If a baby is super social they may want to learn to communicate. How do you motivate a child to work on these things, if a baby doesn’t like something they will just cry? The answer for us has been play. 

Corrected age – the age of a premature infant based on their due date not their birth date 

                Corrected age = Chronological age – Number of weeks/months early

Chronological age – the age of a premature infant based on their birth date

Gestational age – the fetal age during pregnancy

Premature – a baby born before 38 weeks

Gross motor skills – whole body movements involving larger muscles

Fine Motor skills – movements that require coordination of the smaller muscle2