“Very Pre-Term” Delivery and the Impact on Speech Sound Production

According to an article published in the ASHA Wire, very preterm children (those delivered earlier than 32 weeks gestation) are reported to be at greater risk of speech and language delays through school age. In a study of 63 preterm children, speech sound development was found to be abnormal in 49% of study participants at 2 years of age and in 19% of participants by 4 years of age. Early speech production or the development of acquired consonants by 2 years of age, was highly predictive of intelligibility in single words and sentences by age four. Results suggest that compared to full term infants, an alarmingly high proportion of “Very Preterm Children” showed challenges with speech sound production by age 2 and of these children, half showed https://sharksinfo.com/ persistent challenges by age 4. In addition, ongoing challenges with speech sound production were also correlated with expressive language delays by preschool age according to this study.