The language used in early mother-child interaction by prematurely born very-low-birth-weight children, with a focus on the emergence of grammar

: Stolt S, Lehtonen L, Haataja L, Lapinleimu H, the PIPARI Study Group

: 2011

: Revista de Logopedia, Foniatría y Audiología

: 3

: 31

: 3

: 115

: 124

: 10

: 0214-4603

The aim of the present study was to analyse the language used in early mother-child
interactions by a selected cohort of 32 very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) children. The word types and inflectional types of Finnish used at 1;6 and 2;0 in mother-child interactions were analysed and compared to those of 35 full-term controls. Information concerning early grammatical development was also gathered using the Finnish version of Communicative Development Inventory at both age points. In addition, the children’s language skills were tested at 2;0. Whereas only a few signifi cant differences emerged between the groups at 1;6, at 2;0, the VLBW children had signifi cantly weaker skills in nearly all variables. The variables analysed from mother-child interaction correlated signifi cantly with the data gathered using other methods, suggesting that, at this age, VLBW children’s overall language performance reflects well in the language they use in mother-child interaction. The results suggest that grammatical acquisition
may be especially challenging for VLBW children at the end of the second year.