Preterm and term infants’ perception of temporally coordinated syllable–object pairings: implications for lexical...

This experimental study examined term infants (n = 34) and low-risk near-term preterm infants (gestational age 32–36 weeks) at 2 months chronological age (n = 34) and corrected age (n =16). The study investigated whether the preterm infants presented with a delay in their sensitivity to synchronous syllable–object pairings when compared with term infants.

First, infants were habituated to a single syllable, [tah] or [gah], spoken in synchrony with the motions of 1 of 4 toy objects, a crab, a porcupine, a star, or a lamb chop. Next, the infants received 2 syllable- and 2 object-change test trials, counterbalanced for order.

After factoring out differential looking time during habituation, the study found that preterm infants showed attenuated looks to the change in the object and the change in the syllable relative to term infants.

These findings suggest that even near-term preterm infants present with a delay in their sensitivity to synchrony in syllable–object pairings relative to term infants. Given the important role that synchrony plays in word mapping at 6–9 months, this early delay in sensitivity to synchrony might be an indicator of word mapping delays found in older preterm infants.