The influence of prematurity on the development of phonological skills

Abstract

Purpose: to check the use of phonological processes in preterm infants. Methods: phonological evaluation was performed through the ABFW Child Language Test in 40 children, aged two to four years, i.e., 20 preterm and 20 full-term children, matched according to age, gender and socioeconomic level. Preterm children were evaluated at the State Center for Prevention and Rehabilitation of People with Disabilities - CEPRED; full-term children were selected and evaluated in a municipal nursery in the city of Salvador, BA, Brazil. The pertinent statistical tests were applied adopting the level of significance lower than 0.05%. Results: in the phonology test, the number of productive phonological processes not expected for the chronological age was statistically significant in the preterm group, especially syllable reduction, consonantal harmony, velar backing and liquid reduction. The high prevalence of cluster reduction and final consonant deletion, though still compatible with chronological age, shows the need to follow up the language acquisition of these children, after the age of four. Conclusion: the results evidenced the difficulty found by preterm infants in the development of phonological skills, emphasizing the importance of early diagnosis and speech-language monitoring in language acquisition.

Processos fonológicos produtivos em escolares nascidos a termo e pequenos para a idade gestacional: estudo caso-controle

“…Uma possível disfunção placentária expõe o bebê à desnutrição, à diminuição da taxa de crescimento e provavelmente afeta os processos de desenvolvimento do cérebro, desencadeando alterações estruturais e funcionais, situações comumente observadas em bebês que tiveram RCIU associado ou não à prematuridade, o que potencialmente ressalta o surgimento de processos neurológicos e cognitivos alterados (23) , que podem interferir no processamento fonológico (11) . Outro estudo (13) relatou existência de evidências limitadas de que as crianças com RCIU que nasceram PIG a termo podem ter problemas com atenção, impactando a aprendizagem e o comportamento à medida que avançam na escola, sugerindo que esta seria uma área útil para trabalhos futuros.…”

“…Todavia, em muitos casos, não se identificam causas específicas orgânicas ou ambientais. Entre os aspectos que têm despertado interesse nos pesquisadores estão a prematuridade e o baixo peso, fatores considerados de risco para alterações de linguagem e fala (9)(10)(11) .…”

Análise comparativa do vocabulário expressivo de crianças nascidas pré-termo e a termo

“…In general, the literature points to the effects of prematurity in relation to the acquisition of language. These effects could either be comorbidities of other clinical conditions associated with prematurity or be related to the prematurity itself, as a biological risk factor (28,29) , with impairments in lexical (7,18,20) , phonological (11,30) , semantic and pragmatic skills (11) .…”

Evidence of changes in the oral language in children born full-term and small for gestational age: a systematic review

“… 14 Children born SGA have a higher risk of developing diseases such as obesity, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, delayed neuropsychomotor development, and visual, auditory, behavioral and learning problems, 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 which directly interfere in the process of the speech and language development. 20 , 21 , 22 Therefore, the relationship between complications during this process and the low weight of children born full-term needs more research to find more conclusions.…”