A child is 20 months old and was born 4 weeks premature. What is the corrected (adjusted) age for developmental screening?

A child is 20 months old and was born 4 weeks premature. What is the corrected (adjusted) age for developmental screening?

• A. 20 months
• B. 18 months
• C. 21 months
• D. 19 months

Answer: (D)

When assessing development in a preterm child, you use the corrected (adjusted) age, which is the chronological age minus the number of weeks (or months) the baby was premature. This helps compare the child to typical milestones as if they were born on time, usually until about two years old. In this case, the child is 20 months old chronologically and was born 4 weeks early, which is about one month. Subtracting that month gives a corrected age of 19 months. For developmental screening, you’d compare the child to what a typical 19‑month‑old should be able to do, not a 20‑month‑old, to avoid underestimating delays due to prematurity. The other options would misalign the milestone expectations: ignoring prematurity would overestimate development, while subtracting more than the actual prematurity would underestimate it. Therefore, 19 months is the appropriate corrected age.

When assessing development in a preterm child, you use the corrected (adjusted) age, which is the chronological age minus the number of weeks (or months) the baby was premature. This helps compare the child to typical milestones as if they were born on time, usually until about two years old.

In this case, the child is 20 months old chronologically and was born 4 weeks early, which is about one month. Subtracting that month gives a corrected age of 19 months. For developmental screening, you’d compare the child to what a typical 19‑month‑old should be able to do, not a 20‑month‑old, to avoid underestimating delays due to prematurity.

The other options would misalign the milestone expectations: ignoring prematurity would overestimate development, while subtracting more than the actual prematurity would underestimate it. Therefore, 19 months is the appropriate corrected age.