What is it about?
The authors examined term infants (gestational age 37-41 weeks) and preterm infants (gestational age 32–36 weeks) at 2 months. First, infants were repeatedly exposed to a synchronous video display of a single utterance, [tah] or [gah], spoken simultaneously with the motions of a toy object. Next, they were shown a display with only a syllable-change and another display of only an object-change. The preterm infants showed attenuated looking to both changes, demonstrating a delayed sensitivity to the simultaneous syllable–object pairing. In contrast, the term infants showed greater looking to both changes, demonstrating sensitivity to the simultaneous syllable-object pairing and detection of the subsequent changes.
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Why is it important?
The study investigated whether the preterm infants presented with a delay in their sensitivity to synchronous syllable–object pairings relative to term infants. Given the important role that synchrony plays in learning the relations between words and objects during everyday word learning at 6–9 months, this delayed sensitivity to synchrony might be an early indicator of word learning delays found in preterm infants at later ages.
Perspectives
Relative to term infants, preterm infants often experience language delays. They are at-risk for delays in language comprehension and production, including lexical morphology and verbal memory after factoring out birth weight differences. Language delays are also observed on standardized assessments in 7-year-old children born preterm and at low-risk for cognitive and motor delays. Similarly, language delays have been observed in word-combinations onset at 3 years, and mean length of utterance compared to same-age term children. The present study shows for the first time that borderline 2-month-old preterm infants (gestational age 32-36 weeks) also experience a specific delay in their perception of synchronous spoken syllables and moving objects, which might be an early indicator of the language delays found in older preterm children.
Dr. Lakshmi Gogate
University of Missouri Columbia
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Preterm and Term Infants' Perception of Temporally Coordinated Syllable–Object Pairings: Implications for Lexical Development, Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, February 2014, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
DOI: 10.1044/1092-4388(2013/12-0403).
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