Are Premature Babies at Risk of Speech Delay?
October 8, 2023
We receive this question often about whether premature babies are at risk of language delay, and if so, what the risks are.
So we asked our speech-language pathology consultants to answer the following questions:
Are premature babies at risk of speech and language delay?
The short answer is yes. Premature babies are at risk of reaching speech and language milestones later than their full-term peers. These dimensions relate to language comprehension, vocabulary size, grammar skills, sound production, self-regulation, and social interaction. In addition, having a premature baby can be a stressful experience for parents, which in turn can affect parent-child relationship dynamics.
Fortunately, by integrating research-based language-building activities into your daily routine, parents and caregivers can have a profound impact on their child's speech and language development.
What are the facts on this topic?
Studies indicate that children born prematurely tend to have smaller vocabularies at 3 years of age compared to full-term children. Without support, this gap can continue to widen during preschool and school age (Zimmerman, 2018).
According to Sansavini (2011), premature infants develop gestures, words, and language comprehension at a slower rate than full-term infants. This leads to a growing disparity in language skills that continues to widen throughout early childhood.
Also, a longitudinal study conducted by Stolt and colleagues (2016) followed a group of 29 premature infants and 28 full-term infants from birth to school age. They found that in premature infants, gesture development at 1 year of age was significantly and positively associated higher than vocabulary development at 5 years of age. Children born prematurely are more likely to have weaker language comprehension and a smaller vocabulary than their full-term peers.
A study by Gray and colleagues (2013) showed that mothers of premature infants experience double the parenting-related stress in the first year of their child's life. This can affect the quality of the parent-infant relationship, as high maternal-infant responsiveness in premature infants is associated with significantly better language development (White-Traut, 2018).
Why is answering these questions important?
Research on brain development teaches us that earlier is better!
Language learning begins at birth, and the early period from 6 to 24 months represents a golden opportunity to maximize the brain's neuroplasticity and support the development of early communication skills, as gestures begin to develop before words and are the foundation of language development.
Research shows that gesture development between 9 to 16 months predicts word production skills at 24 months, and word production skills at 24 months significantly predict language and literacy skills at age five.
What can I do to reduce the risk of language delay in my child?
There are plenty of wonderful things you can do!
- First, know that you are already doing a lot by monitoring your child's speech and language development. Children learn language through responsive interactions with their primary caregivers (parents).
- If you are looking for additional resources on how to stimulate early interaction and language in your child, we suggest starting with one simple activity you can do during play or in your daily routine. Fasih has a digital blog featuring dozens of articles and activities developed by our pediatric speech-language pathology experts. The activities are fun, educational, and structured to fit easily into different parts of your busy day (such as bath time, feeding, and playtime).
- By actively engaging with your child throughout the day using these structured, language-stimulating activities, you can begin to listen to how your child communicates and positively influence it. Keep in mind that repetition and consistency are key!
If you have been incorporating these activities into your daily routine for a few weeks and still have questions or concerns, start by applying the accredited Language Development Scale to test your child's language, as it is the first test of its kind for the early detection of language disorders in the Kingdom.
If it turns out that your child has a language delay, you will then be able to book a time to speak with one of our licensed speech-language pathologists to learn about the virtual therapy program through the Ynmo Plan app.
Originally published in Arabic. This English version was produced with AI-assisted translation; the Arabic original remains the reference.
