I don't have a link to the article, but I've been reading some lately about children born earlier having a lower IQ and a higher chance of developmental delays and learning disabilities. I find this interesting, because DD14 was born right around the premature mark (3 weeks early), and is gifted. (I have another son who was born later and is also gifted). I guess the theory is that the 3 weeks would be time that the baby would be still developing mentally, but I guess it depends on the baby.
I've certainly heard that there is a
statistical tendency for early babies to have lower IQs and more developmental delays, but I think this is not believed to be because the brain would have gone on developing. It still develops very rapidly after the baby is born, and although it's not out of the question that there could be some important benefit to that being in utero, I haven't heard it. Rather, I think it's that babies who arrive early are more likely (just statistically, again) to have had some problem affecting their development, whether genetic or environmental, that both increases the chance of being born early and decreases expected IQ and development speed.
It's a very small effect, though, barring serious prematurity and recognised brain damage - not useful in explaining individuals.
