Educational needs of Infant Education children with congenital heart disease. Description of a cohort and a systematic review

Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) is one of the leading causes of mortality in Spain. This study aims (i) to identify the existence of (co)morbidities in the neurodevelopment of a sample of these children and (ii) to demonstrate the need for them to receive educational intervention as soon as possible through early care programs so that their maturational development can be optimized. This study also presents a systematic review of the research available in the field. With the Bayley-III Child Development Scale, cardiac infants (M = 25.3 months) at the University Hospital La Paz, at the Hospital 12 de Octubre and the Menudos Corazones Foundation were assessed. The biomedical and developmen- tal characteristics of 90 participants are described. 68% have an average cognitive development. Average rates were also reported for linguistic (42%) and motor (44%) development. For the latter category, normal-slow (35% and 24%, respectively) and bordeline (15% and 12%) development rates were found. The review of the scientific literature in this regard corroborates that the communicative-linguistic and the motor areas are the poorest dimensions of development.