Expressive Language in Preschoolers Born Preterm: Results of Language Sample Analysis and Standardized Assessment

Abstract

Children born preterm constitute one of the largest populations of children at risk for the development of language impairments. A little over one in ten pregnancies result in a preterm birth and approximately 25% of these children go on to experience subsequent difficulties with language (CDC, 2015; Foster-Cohen, Friesen, Champion, & Woodward, 2010). Despite the high risk for language deficits in this population, few studies have investigated the conversational language skills of these children. In particular, the objective of this study was to investigate the grammatical and semantic skills of children born preterm via language sample analysis. A second aim of the study was to determine the relationship between conversational language skills and the results of standardized assessment of language in this population and investigate the role that non-linguistic factors such as attention and non-verbal intelligence play in standardized assessment results. Twenty-nine preschoolers born preterm and a comparison group of 29 full term peers participated in this study. The children in the preterm group performed more poorly than the full term group on measures of conversational semantic and grammatical skills obtained from language sample analysis. In contrast, the two groups performed similarly on all but one of the measures obtained from standardized assessments. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.