A study presented at the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology annual meeting in Dublin suggests that the thyroid function of pregnant women is associated with poorer mathematics skills in their offspring at primary school level.

Low levels of thyroxine are known to effect the mental development of the baby. The result of Dutch researchers’ study are that children whose mothers had low levels of thyroxine during pregnancy were twice as likely to have below average mathematics scores. Interestingly, language skills were not effected in the same way and there was no difference at the age 5.

Link
Maternal Hypothyroxinemia in Early Pregnancy is Associated with Poorer Arithmetic Performance in a School Test in Offspring at Age 5 Years, ESPE Abstracts (2014) P-D-1-2-253.