High Prevalence/Low Severity Language Delay in Preschool Children Born Very Preterm Attention problems in very preterm children from childhood to adulthood: the Bavarian Longitudinal Study. Cognitive development in low risk preterm infants at 3–4 years of life
Objective : To examine the language development at corrected age 4 years of a regionally representative cohort of children born very preterm ( VPT ) . Of particular interest was the identification of biological and socioenvironmental risk and protective factors that influence  VPT children 's early language development . Method : Data were collected as part of a prospect i ve longitudinal study of 110 VPT ( VPT : ≤33 weeks gestation ) and 113 full-term children ( full term : 37–41 weeks gestation ) born in Canterbury , New Zeal and from 1998 to 2000 . At corrected age 4 years , all children were assessed with the preschool version of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals . Extensive information was also collected about children 's family social background , perinatal health , childrearing environment , education/intervention exposures , and neurodevelopmental progress from birth to age 4 . Results : At the age of 4 years , VPT children were characterized by poorer receptive and expressive language development than full-term children . These differences persisted after exclusion of children with neurosensory impairment as well as statistical adjustment for the effects of social risk . Within the VPT group , the key predictors of children 's overall language development were family social risk at birth ( p = .05 ) , severity of white matter abnormalities on neonatal magnetic resonance imaging ( p = .49 ) , observed parent-child synchrony ( p = .001 ) , and concurrent child cognitive ability ( p = .001 ) . Together , these factors accounted for 45 % of the variance in children 's total Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals — Preschool scores . Conclusion : By preschool age , children born VPT  show early emerging mild to moderate language delays that are likely to affect their school success and longer-term developmental progress . Findings highlight the importance of potentially modifiable factors such as early brain injury and parenting quality in predicting the language outcomes of children born VPT BACKGROUND Very preterm ( VP ; gestational age < 32 weeks ) and very low birth weight ( VLBW ; < 1500 grams ) is related to attention problems in childhood and adulthood . The stability of these problems into adulthood is not known . METHODS The Bavarian Longitudinal Study is a prospect i ve cohort study that followed 260 VP/VLBW and 229 term-born individuals from birth to adulthood . Data on attention were collected at 6 , 8 , and 26 years of age , using parent reports , expert behavior observations , and clinical ADHD diagnoses . RESULTS At each assessment , VP/VLBW individuals had significantly more attention problems , shorter attention span , and were more frequently diagnosed with ADHD than term-born comparisons . In both VP/VLBW and term-born individuals , overall , attention span increased and attention problems decreased from childhood to adulthood . Attention problems and attention span were more stable over time for VP/VLBW than term-born individuals . Similarly , ADHD diagnoses showed moderate stability from childhood to adulthood in VP/VLBW , but not in term-born individuals . However , when those with severe disabilities were excluded , differences between VP/VLBW and term-born individuals reduced . CONCLUSIONS Despite improvement in attention regulation from childhood to adulthood , children born very preterm remained at increased risk for attention problems in adulthood . In contrast , term-born children with clinical attention problems outgrew these by adulthood . As inattentive behavior of VP/VLBW children may be overlooked by teachers , it may be necessary to raise awareness for school intervention programs that reduce attention problems in VP/VLBW children Background : Major neurological h and icaps and neuropsychological disturbances are more common in ex-preterm children than their counterparts born at term . Objective : To establish in a prospect i ve study whether a characteristic neuropsychological profile exists in ex-preterm children who do not exhibit neurodevelopmental deficits on routine clinical examination . Methods : Thirty intellectually normal children born preterm ( 30–34 weeks gestation ) without major neurological disabilities and a control group of term children matched for age , sex , and parental educational and occupational status were assessed at 3–4 years of age to obtain a complete neuropsychological profile . Intellectual ability , language comprehension and expression , perceptual and visual motor function , working memory , and attention and behavioural problems were investigated . Results : Even in the absence of major neurological signs , children born preterm achieved lower mean scores than controls on the Stanford-Binet intelligence scale ( 110.8 v 121 , p<0.001 ) , visual perception test ( 33.8 v 42.7 , p<0.001 ) , visual motor integration test ( 42.6 v 47.4 , p = 0.049 ) , memory for location test ( 8.4 v 9.5 , p = 0.007 ) , sustained attention test ( 41.6 v 51.5 , p = 0.009 ) , and the picture vocabulary test ( 33.3 v 44.7 , p = 0.021 ) . Conclusions : Neuropsychological abnormalities can be detected early in childhood in apparently normal ex-preterm children and are consistent with a growing body of evidence that prematurity may be associated with long term neuropsychological morbidity in childhood and adolescence
RESULTS : Preterm-born children scored significantly lower compared with term-born children on simple ( d = –0.45 [ 95 % CI : –0.59 to –0.30 ] ; P < .001 ) and on complex ( d = –0.62 [ 95 % CI : –0.82 to –0.43 ] ; P < .001 ) language function tests , even in the absence of major disabilities and independent of social economic status .
: While growing up , preterm-born children have increasing difficulties with complex language function
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE : Preterm-born children ( < 37 weeks ’ gestation ) have higher rates of language function problems compared with term-born children .
It is unknown whether these problems decrease , deteriorate , or remain stable over time .
The goal of this research was to determine the developmental course of language functions in preterm-born children from 3 to 12 years of age .