Effect of primary language on developmental testing in children born extremely preterm

Area of Science:

• Neonatal research
• Developmental pediatrics
• Linguistic studies

Background:

• Extremely preterm birth (<28 weeks) poses risks to neurodevelopment.
• Home language environment can influence child development outcomes.
• Assessing language and cognition in diverse populations requires careful consideration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of non-English home language on toddlers born extremely preterm.
• To compare cognitive, language, and behavioral outcomes between Spanish-speaking and English-speaking preterm toddlers.
• To identify potential biases in standardized testing tools for diverse linguistic backgrounds.

Main Methods:

• Study included 850 children born <28 weeks gestational age.
• Evaluations at 18-22 months adjusted age using Bayley Scales and BITSEA.
• Comparison between Spanish-primary language (n=98) and English-primary language (n=752) groups, adjusted for covariates.

Main Results:

• Cognitive scores were comparable between Spanish and English-speaking groups.
• Lower receptive, expressive, and composite language scores were observed in Spanish-speaking toddlers.
• Behavioral scores (BITSEA) showed differences in univariate but not adjusted analyses.

Conclusions:

• Preterm children speaking Spanish at home demonstrated similar cognitive but lower language scores than English speakers.
• English-based language testing tools may introduce bias against preterm infants from non-English speaking backgrounds.
• Further research is needed to develop culturally and linguistically appropriate assessment tools.