PRIMO SVILUPPO COMUNICATIVO-LINGUISTICO IN BAMBINI PRETERMINE SENZA DANNO NEUROLOGICO.

This study aimed to explore the early comunicative and language development in 10 Italian preterm infants without central nervous system insults and in 10 Italian full-term infants. All participants were assessed longitudinally through the questionnaire “Il Primo Vocabolario del Bambino” (PVB), administered to the mothers monthly between 10 and 18 months of age.To reterm infants both chronological age and age correction for prematurity were applied. The measures derived by PVB were: gestures production, words comprehensionand production in each age. Results – on the basis of chronological age – indicated that preterm infants exhibited an initial and transient delay and disharmonic profiles in all aspects examined, with scores within the lower limits of typical development range. Otherwise, on the basis of age correction, preterm infants show performaces, since the first observations, on or over the mean value. In conclusion using the age correction for prematurity the communicative and language abilities of preterm infants were overestimated and the initial delay of language development was underestimated. Findings are discussed considering the role of gestational age on early language development and the utility of correct age on the assessment of preterm infants during the second year of age.