title: Early relations between language development and the quality of mother-child interaction in very-low-birth-weight children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It is not clearly understood how the quality of early mother-child interaction influences language development in very-low-birth-weight children (VLBW).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We aim to analyze associations between early language and the quality of mother-child interaction, and, the predictive value of the features of early mother-child interaction on language development at 24 months of corrected age in VLBW children.
  
  
  METHODS
  A longitudinal prospective follow-up study design was used.
  
  
  METHODS
  The participants were 28 VLBW children and 34 full-term controls. Language development was measured using different methods at 6, 12 and at 24 months of age. The quality of mother-child interaction was assessed using PC-ERA method at 6 and at 12 months of age.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Associations between the features of early interaction and language development were different in the groups of VLBW and full-term children. There were no significant correlations between the features of mother-child interaction and language skills when measured at the same age in the VLBW group. Significant longitudinal correlations were detected in the VLBW group especially if the quality of early interactions was measured at six months and language skills at 2 years of age. However, when the predictive value of the features of early interactions for later poor language performance was analyzed separately, the features of early interaction predicted language skills in the VLBW group only weakly.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The biological factors may influence on the language development more in the VLBW children than in the full-term children. The results also underline the role of maternal and dyadic factors in early interactions.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Behavioural Sciences and Philosophy, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. Electronic address: Suvi.Stolt@utu.fi.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stolt
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Child Psychiatry, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Korja
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Pediatrics, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Matomäki
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Pediatrics, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lapinleimu
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Pediatric Neurology, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Haataja
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Pediatrics, Turku University Hospital and University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lehtonen
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007234:Infant, Premature / Q000254:growth & development; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight / Q000254:growth & development*; D007804:Language Development; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations / Q000523:psychology*; D047928:Premature Birth; D011446:Prospective Studies
keywords: Language development; Mother–child interaction; Preterm children; Very-low-birth-weight children