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Speech and language development of children born at < or = 32 weeks' gestation: a 5-year prospective follow-up study
L Luoma1, E Herrgård, A Martikainen
1Department of Paediatrics, Kuopio University Hospital, Finland.
Insights
Children born preterm often exhibit subtle speech and language deficits, impacting word retrieval and concept comprehension. These early challenges may indicate future reading difficulties.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Pediatric Neurology
- Speech-Language Pathology
Background:
- Preterm birth (< or = 32 weeks' gestational age) affects neurodevelopment.
- Early language and speech skills are crucial for academic success.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess speech and language development in 5-year-old preterm children.
- To compare preterm children with term-born peers, considering neurological disabilities.
Main Methods:
- Speech and language abilities assessed at age 5 in preterm (N=55) and term-born children.
- Data analyzed with and without major neurological disabilities.
- Standardized cognitive and language assessments utilized.
Main Results:
- Preterm children showed lower overall performance, including IQ scores.
- Excluding major disabilities, preterm children had significant deficits in 4/12 speech/language measures.
- Subtle dysnomia (slow word retrieval) and difficulty with relative concepts were observed in intellectually normal preterm children.
Conclusions:
- Preterm children, even without major disabilities, may experience subtle language impairments like dysnomia.
- These findings suggest potential risks for later reading problems.
- Specific language impairment was less common in preterm children, but gender differences in IQ discrepancies were noted.
Abstract:
Speech and language comprehension and production were assessed at the age of 5 years in a cohort of children born preterm at < or = 32 weeks' gestational age (N=55) in comparison with children born at term and of similar age, sex, and social backgrounds. Data both including and excluding major neurological disabilities are presented. Mean performance for the entire group of preterm children was significantly lower than for the controls on most of the measures including the composite IQ scores. When the nine children who had major neurological disabilities were excluded from the preterm group, statistically significant differences were found on four of the total 12 speech and language measures. Intellectually normal preterm children without major neurological disability were slower than the controls on rapid word retrieval. In addition, difficulties in comprehending relative concepts were typical for the preterm children. The results suggest 'subtle dysnomia', which is indicative of later reading problems. On global verbal measures and on the basic speech and language aspects the study groups did not differ. Specific language impairment, defined as a discrepancy of > 1SD between Performance IQ and Verbal IQ scores, showed a tendency to be more common in the control group. Within both the study groups, the boys showed a tendency for a greater discrepancy between their Performance and Verbal IQ scores.