engleski

Similarities and diferenceces in language development between preterm and term children at the age of 4 to 5

The aim of this study was to examine whether preterm children differ from term pears on different measures of language development. Study design: Subjects were 31 preterm (=27 to = 36 gestational weeks) and the same number of term children aged 4 to 5 matched case by case for age, gender and mother� s education. Receptive and expressive language abilities were assessed by means of different language tests (Reynell Receptive Expressive Developmental Scale, Articulation test, Naming test, Inflectional morphology tasks, Phonological avarenes tasks). To exclude children with cognitive delay Brunet Lezine Developmental Scale was applied. Corelations between prenatal and perinatal risk factors and language variables were computed and group differences were explored with ANOVAtest. Results: Significantly higher incidence of language disorders has been found in the group of preterms. Only 7 subjects has been considerd as having normal language development while the rest had moderate to severe language deficits. When subgrupe with normal language development has been extracted and compared to peerd controls there was no significant differencies between groups on most variables except for naming speed and pseudowords inflectional morphology task. The overall score on Reynell and BL scales correlated significantly with gestational age and birth weight. Conclusions: Results indicate da su priterms pod vecim rizikom for language disorders and that they achived lower scores in all language domains assessed (comprehension, phonology, morphosyntax, lexical ). Even subgrup of pretems without language deficits had lower results in naming speed (which we asume (may have slower) could be atributable to slower information processing) and mild problems with generating morphosintactical skills and slightly weaker morphological skills.

language; speech; pretem; prematurely born

nije evidentirano