Foster-Cohen Susan, Edgin Jamie O, Champion Patricia R, Woodward Lianne J
University of Canterbury and the Champion Centre, Christchurch, New Zealand.
J Child Lang. 2007 Aug;34(3):655-75. doi: 10.1017/s0305000907008070.
This study examined the effects of being born very preterm on children's early language development using prospective longitudinal data from a representative regional cohort of 90 children born very preterm (gestational age <33 weeks and/or birth weight <1,500 grams) and a comparison sample of 102 children born full term (gestational age 38-41 weeks). The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences (CDI-WS) was used to assess children's language development at age 2;0 (corrected for gestational age at birth). Clear linear relationships were found between gestational age at birth and later language outcomes, with decreasing gestational age being associated with poorer parent-reported language skills. Specifically, children born extremely preterm (<28 weeks' gestation) tended to perform less well than those born very preterm (28-32 weeks' gestation), who in turn performed worse than children born full term (38-41 weeks' gestation). This pattern of findings was evident across a range of outcomes spanning vocabulary size and quality of word use, as well as morphological and syntactic complexity. Importantly, associations between gestational age at birth and language outcomes persisted after statistical control for child and family factors correlated with both preterm birth and language development. These findings demonstrate the presence of pervasive delays in the early language development of children born very preterm. They also highlight the importance of gestational age in predicting later language risk in this population of infants.
本研究利用来自一个具有代表性的地区队列的前瞻性纵向数据，考察了极早产对儿童早期语言发育的影响。该队列中有90名极早产儿童（胎龄<33周和/或出生体重<1500克），另有102名足月出生儿童（胎龄38 - 41周）作为对照样本。使用麦克阿瑟-贝茨交流发展量表：单词和句子版（CDI-WS）评估儿童在2岁0个月（根据出生时的胎龄校正）时的语言发育情况。研究发现，出生时的胎龄与后期语言发育结果之间存在明显的线性关系，胎龄越小，家长报告的语言技能越差。具体而言，极早产（胎龄<28周）儿童的表现往往不如极早产（胎龄28 - 32周）儿童，而极早产儿童的表现又比足月出生（胎龄38 - 41周）儿童差。这一结果模式在一系列结果中都很明显，包括词汇量大小、单词使用质量以及形态和句法复杂性。重要的是，在对与早产和语言发育相关的儿童及家庭因素进行统计控制后，出生时的胎龄与语言发育结果之间的关联依然存在。这些发现表明，极早产儿童在早期语言发育中普遍存在延迟。它们还凸显了胎龄在预测这一婴儿群体后期语言风险方面的重要性。
