[Oral and written language production in prematures children: results in 7 1/2-year-old].
Prematurity entails risk factors of cognitive delay, particularly in language production and reading. These risk factors may be related to physiological and/or environmental variables. This study has two main objectives: (1) to track down which preterm children are most at risk of developing cognitive delays, particularly language production and reading; (2) to study whether screening of oral language in 3 1/2-year-olds predicts their future reading ability. A cohort of 50 pre-term children (23 boys and 27 girls) was followed from the ages of 2 to 7 1/2 years. The results show that: (a) 28% of the premature children present delayed language production at 3 1/2 years of age; (b) 34% of these children present delayed reading at 7 1/2 years of age; (c) language production at 3 1/2 years predicts the reading ability at 7 1/2 years, and (d) premature children who are most at risk are those who belong to low sociocultural groups.
Crunelle
Dominique
D
Institut d'orthophonie Gabrielle-Decroix, Faculté de médecine, Lille, France.
Le Normand
Marie-Thérèse
MT
Delfosse
Marie-José
MJ
D002648:Child; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D014705:Verbal Behavior