Expressive language of two year-old pre-term and full-term children.
BACKGROUND
expressive language of pre-term children.


OBJECTIVE
to compare the expressive vocabulary of two year-old children born prematurely, to that of those born at term.


METHODS
the study sample was composed by 118 speech-language assessment protocols, divided in two groups: the pre-term group (PTG) composed by 58 underweight premature children followed by a multi-professional team at the Casa do Prematuro (House of Premature Children) at Unifesp, and the full-term group (FTG) composed by 60 full-term born children. In order to evaluate the expressive language of these children, the Lave - Lista de Avaliação do Vocabulário Expressivo (Assessment List of the Expressive Vocabulary) was used. The Lave is an adaptation of the LDS - Language Development Survey - for the Brazilian Portuguese Language. The Lave investigates the expressive language and detects delays in oral language.


RESULTS
children born underweight and prematurely present a greater occurrence of expressive language delay, 27.6%. These pre-term children present significantly lower expressive vocabulary and phrasal extension than children of the same age born at full-term in all semantic categories. Family income proved to be positively associated to phrasal extension, as well as to gestational age and weight at birth; thus indicating the effect of these adverse conditions still during the third year of age. The audiological status was associated to word utterances in the PTG.


CONCLUSIONS
children born prematurely and underweight are at risk in terms of vocabulary development; this determines the need for speech-therapy intervention programs.
Isotani
Selma Mie
SM
Departamento de Fonoaudiologia da Universidade Federal de São Paulo - Unifesp. selmaisotani@gmail.com
Azevedo
Marisa Frasson de
MF
Chiari
Brasília Maria
BM
Perissinoto
Jacy
J
D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007804:Language Development; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D014825:Vocabulary