Kunnari Sari, Yliherva Anneli, Paavola Leila, Peltoniemi Outi M
Logopedics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
Folia Phoniatr Logop. 2012;64(1):5-11. doi: 10.1159/000328641. Epub 2011 Jun 23.
Preterm children with low birth weight are at greater risk of experiencing speech and language difficulties than full-term children. The aim of the current study was to investigate expressive language skills of Finnish-speaking preterm children with low birth weight [extremely-low-birth-weight (ELBW) children: n = 8; very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) children: n = 10] at 2 years of corrected age and to compare their language results with full-term controls (n = 18), using spontaneous speech samples.
The children were video recorded in semistructured free-play sessions with their mothers. From these video samples, expressive vocabulary size and maximum sentence length (MSL) were analyzed. In addition, the possible effect of children's gender on language measures as well as associations between different language measures were examined.
The results showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the preterm and full-term groups in the size of expressive vocabulary. In contrast, the MSL, which measures morphosyntactic skills, was significantly shorter in preterm children. A positive correlation was found between MSL and expressive vocabulary. Children's gender was not associated with language skills measured.
The findings indicate that Finnish-speaking preterm children, especially ELBW children, experience difficulties in morphosyntactic skills.
低出生体重的早产儿比足月儿出现言语和语言困难的风险更高。本研究的目的是调查芬兰语低出生体重早产儿[极低出生体重（ELBW）儿童：n = 8；超低出生体重（VLBW）儿童：n = 10]在矫正年龄2岁时的表达性语言技能，并使用自发言语样本将其语言结果与足月儿对照组（n = 18）进行比较。
在半结构化的自由玩耍环节中，让孩子们与他们的母亲进行视频录制。从这些视频样本中，分析表达性词汇量和最大句子长度（MSL）。此外，还研究了儿童性别对语言测量的可能影响以及不同语言测量之间的关联。
结果显示，早产儿和足月儿组在表达性词汇量大小上没有统计学上的显著差异。相比之下，测量形态句法技能的MSL在早产儿中明显更短。MSL与表达性词汇量之间存在正相关。儿童性别与所测量的语言技能无关。
研究结果表明，说芬兰语的早产儿，尤其是ELBW儿童，在形态句法技能方面存在困难。
