Original ArticlesLong-Term Stability of Language Performance in Very Preterm, Moderate-Late Preterm, and Term Children
Section snippets
Methods
Data were drawn from the prospective Bavarian Longitudinal Study.20 Participants were children born alive in a geographically defined area of Southern Bavaria (Germany) during a 14-month period who required admission to children's hospitals within the first 10 days after birth (N = 7505; 10.6% of all live births). Healthy infants who were born in the same obstetric hospitals (most born at term), cared for on normal postnatal wards, and discharged with their mothers were recruited as controls
Full Sample Language Stability Model
We used latent variables to model the shared variance among language measures. This procedure has the advantage of removing measurement error and specific variance for each scale from the latent factor, leaving a more precise and reliable estimate of language ability at each age.43 Furthermore, the use of latent variables allows for developmentally appropriate changes in the measurement of language as children age. Measurement models supported a single language factor at 4 years of age and
Discussion
At all time points across early development, very preterm children had lower language performance than term-born children. At 3 of the 5 ages, moderate-late preterm children also scored lower than term-born children (and better than very preterm children).4, 9, 10, 11 This study's novel contribution to the literature is its analysis of the stability of individual differences in the language of preterm children. From very early in development, very preterm, moderate-late preterm, and term
References (49)
- et al.
An overview of mortality and sequelae of preterm birth from infancy to adulthood
Lancet
(2008) - et al.
National, regional, and worldwide estimates of preterm birth rates in the year 2010 with time trends since 1990 for selected countries: a systematic analysis and implications
Lancet
(2012) - et al.
Visuospatial and verbal fluency relative deficits in ‘complicated’ late-preterm preschool children
Early Hum Dev
(2009) - et al.
Longitudinal trajectories of gestural and linguistic abilities in very preterm infants in the second year of life
Neuropsychologia
(2011) - et al.
The early lexical development and its predictive value to language skills at 2 years in very-low-birth-weight children
J Commun Disord
(2009) Twin children's language development
Early Hum Dev
(2006)- et al.
Born too soon: the global action report on preterm birth
(2012) - et al.
Cognitive and behavioral outcomes of school-aged children who were born preterm: a meta-analysis
JAMA
(2002) - et al.
Effects of gestational age at birth on cognitive performance: a function of cognitive workload demands
PLoS ONE
(2013) - et al.
Early term and late preterm birth are associated with poorer school performance at age 5 years: a cohort study
Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed
(2012)
Universal gestational age effects on cognitive and basic mathematic processing: 2 Cohorts in 2 countries
J Pediatr
Language abilities in children who were very preterm and/or very low birth weight: a meta-analysis
J Pediatr
School-age outcomes of late preterm infants in New York City
Am J Obstet Gynecol
Developmental outcomes of late- preterm infants at 2 and 4 years
Matern Child Health J
Psychological stability
Specific and general language performance across early childhood: stability and gender considerations
First Lang
Stability of core language skill across the first decade of life in children at biological and social risk
J Child Psychol Psychiatry
Stability of core language skill from early childhood to adolescence: a latent variable approach
Child Dev
Stability of language in childhood: a multiage, multidomain, multimeasure, and multisource study
Dev Psychol
Attention problems and language development in preterm low-birth-weight children: cross-lagged relations from 18 to 36 months
BMC Pediatr
Crying and feeding problems in infancy and cognitive outcome in preschool children born at risk: a prospective population study
J Dev Behav Pediatr
The changing panorama of cerebral palsy in Sweden. VI. Prevalence and origin during the birth year period 1983-1986
Acta Paediatr
Self and parent perspectives on health-related quality of life of adolescents born very preterm
J Pediatr
Preterm and low birth weight babies
Cited by (0)
D.P. and M.B. were supported by the intramural program of the National Institutes of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Data acquisition was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Science (PKE24, JUG14, 01EP9504, and 01ER0801 [to D.W. and S.E.-M.]). The authors declare no conflicts of interest.