title: Expressive language skills in Finnish two-year-old extremely- and very-low-birth-weight preterm children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
  
  
  RESULTS
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings indicate that Finnish-speaking preterm children, especially ELBW children, experience difficulties in morphosyntactic skills.
authors.affiliation: Logopedics, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland. sari.kunnari@oulu.fi
authors.forename: Sari
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kunnari
authors.forename: Anneli
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yliherva
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Paavola
authors.forename: Outi M
authors.initials: OM
authors.lastname: Peltoniemi
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000523:psychology*; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight / Q000523:psychology*; D007804:Language Development; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic