Are Preemies At Risk of Language Delays?

I have a special place in my heart for premature babies. You know the WEE ones that come into the world much earlier than expected. My hospital life has been spent in Neonatal Follow-Up and I absolutely love it. So naturally the question “Are preemies at risk of delays in speech and language?”. YES, they are (at risk). Being born early puts these babes behind the eight ball in reaching their speech and language milestones compared to their full-term friends. I am talking about understanding language, learning words, making sounds, and even their social development. But here’s the thing, by using language-rich activities in your daily routines @snack time, diaper changes, songs, books ….. mommas and dads can totally impact their baby’s speech and language development.

Here is some of the research:

A study by Zimmerman, 2018 showed that babies born preterm tend to have a smaller vocabulary at 3 years of age compared with babies born full term. And if these babies don’t get the proper support, this gap can continue to widen through preschool and even school age.

In February 2019 a review of the literature by Charlotte Vandormael et.al looked at how and why prematurity affects language development. Not surprisingly the conclusion was that language development can be affected by prematurity. The GOOD NEWS—several intervention methods focused on parent-baby interactions positively impacted both language development and cognitive development in preemies.

BOTTOM LINE: Keep those back-and-forth interactions going, they are making a difference!!