Interacting Roles of Gestational Age and Parent-Child Interactions in Preterm Children’s Verbal Comprehension

• In Event: Conditions of social vulnerability and language development

Abstract

Every year, close to 15 million children are born premature (Wolke, Johnson, & Mendonça, 2019). When children are born premature (< 37 weeks gestational age), their developing neural tissue is put to halt, causing increased risk for death, disability and delays (CDC, 2019; DeMaster et al., 2019). One of the greatest difficulties preterm children experience is cognitive delay. In explaining observed cognitive delays, previous focus has been on the role of biological factors, e.g. brain injury, and early prematurity (Sansavini et al., 2014; Miller et al., 2005). More recent literature focused on environmental factors, such as the role of parental socioeconomic status (SES), as a moderator in the relationship between prematurity and cognitive outcomes. However, parental SES is a composite measure and consists of many subcomponents. Recent studies on Term children has focused on the role of immediate parent-child interactions on children’s cognitive development, over and above SES (Demir, Rowe, Heller, Goldin-Meadow, & Levine, 2015). Little is known about proximal parent-child interactions that might predict Premature children’s outcomes over and above SES. Here, we examined the role of parent-child language/literacy activities in Preterm and Term children’s verbal comprehension. In addition, we also asked whether parent-child interactions play the same or different role for children at different gestational ages (GA).
As part of a larger study, ninety-two 3 to 5 years of age (M = 4.60 years, SD = 0.62) children completed batteries of neurocognitive testing and parents completed behavioral and cognitive related questionnaires on their child. One questionnaire assessed language/literacy activities, asking parents with a Likert scale from 1 (never) to 7 (multiple times per day), how often they engage in various language/literacy activities with their children. Children’s verbal comprehension was assessed by using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Fourth Edition (WPPSI-IV) verbal comprehension index (Wechsler, 2012). Children were divided into three groups based on their gestational age: 14 Early Preterm children (GA < 32.6 weeks), 15 Late Preterm children (GA 33 - 36.6 weeks), and 63 Term children (GA 37 weeks and above).
A two-way ANCOVA with Group, Language/literacy activities, and Group X Language/literacy activities interaction predicting verbal comprehension, while controlling for parent education was conducted. Groups (Early Preterm, Late Preterm, and Term) differed on their verbal comprehension scores, where Early Preterm children performed lower than the two other groups. The group difference was no longer significant after controlling for language/literacy activities and parent education (F (2, 89) = 1.828, p = .167). There was a main effect of language/literacy activities (F (2, 85) = 7.317, p = .008, ηp2 = .079) on verbal comprehension, controlling for parent education, but the Interaction of activities with Group not significant. To sum, the results showed that immediate parent-child interactions plays a role in children’s language skills, over and above SES. Further, parent-child interactions might play the same role of children born at different gestational ages, including children born extremely premature, who are at greater risk of increased cognitive and language delay.

Authors

• Paige Nelson, University of Iowa
  Presenting Author

• Francesca Scheiber, University of Iowa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Allison Momany, University of Iowa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kelli Ryckman, University of Iowa
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ece Demir-Lira, University of Iowa
  Non-Presenting Author