Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Sophia Children's Hospital, Erasmus Medical University Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Sophia Children's Hospital, Erasmus Medical University Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2022 Apr 4;65(4):1294-1310. doi: 10.1044/2021_JSLHR-21-00388. Epub 2022 Mar 9.
Very preterm (VPT) children are at risk for speech and language problems throughout school age. However, little is known about early speech sound production in these children. This study aims to present a detailed description of early speech sound production and its trajectories in VPT children from 2 to 4 years of age. In addition, this study aimed to determine if early speech sound production is associated with speech production and expressive language function at 4 years of age.
In 63 VPT children (< 32 weeks of gestation, 41 boys, mean gestational age = 28.8 weeks, mean birth weight = 1,135 g), speech sound production was assessed by naturalistic speech analysis at 2 years of corrected age and speech and language function by standardized tests at 4 years of age.
Speech sound production was found to be abnormal in 49% of the VPT children at 2 years of age and in 19% at 4 years of age. Four different speech production trajectories from 2 to 4 years of age could be identified: a normal trajectory, an abnormal trajectory, a catch-up trajectory, and a growing-into-deficit trajectory. Early speech production, defined by the number of acquired consonants at 2 years of age, significantly predicted the word production score at 4 years of age and the sentence production score at 4 years of age.
Compared to the general population, an alarmingly high proportion of VPT children showed speech production problems at 2 years of age. About half of these children showed persistent speech problems at 4 years of age. Moreover, these problems were associated with expressive language problems at the age of 4 years.
极早产儿（VPT）在整个学龄期都存在言语和语言问题的风险。然而，对于这些儿童的早期言语声音产生知之甚少。本研究旨在详细描述 VPT 儿童从 2 岁到 4 岁的早期言语声音产生及其轨迹。此外，本研究旨在确定早期言语声音产生是否与 4 岁时的言语产生和表达性语言功能相关。
在 63 名 VPT 儿童（<32 周妊娠，41 名男孩，平均胎龄=28.8 周，平均出生体重=1135 克）中，通过自然言语分析在 2 岁时评估言语声音产生，并在 4 岁时通过标准化测试评估言语和语言功能。
在 2 岁时，49%的 VPT 儿童的言语声音产生被发现异常，而在 4 岁时则为 19%。从 2 岁到 4 岁，可以识别出四种不同的言语产生轨迹：正常轨迹、异常轨迹、追赶轨迹和缺陷增长轨迹。早期言语产生，由 2 岁时获得的辅音数量定义，显著预测了 4 岁时的单词产生得分和 4 岁时的句子产生得分。
与一般人群相比，令人震惊的是，VPT 儿童中有很高比例的儿童在 2 岁时表现出言语产生问题。其中约一半的儿童在 4 岁时表现出持续性言语问题。此外，这些问题与 4 岁时的表达性语言问题相关。
