Expressive and receptive language characteristics in three-year-old preterm children with extremely low birth weight.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to analyze the language characteristics of a group of extremely low birth weight (ELBW) children at 3 years of age and to compare these language results with a sample of full-term children with normal birth weight (FBW). METHODS All children were judged to be free of any major physical, sensorial and neurological impairments and had a mental developmental index of >55 on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. The Language was tested using the Reynell Developmental Language scales. RESULTS There was a significant difference between the ELBW group and the FBW group regarding the receptive and all the expressive language characteristics. There was a significant correlation between the mental developmental index and the language scores in the ELBW as well as in the FBW group. CONCLUSION According to the analysis of the language characteristics, the logopedic approach to 3-year-old children born with ELBW must be focused on receptive (comprehension of 'wh'-questions, passive sentences, inferencing skills and spatial prepositions) and expressive (defining words, expressing semantic relations) morphosyntactic abilities and linguistic conceptualization. These communication disorders appear unrelated to neurological or sensorial impairments, but can be partly explained by a decreased general mental functioning.