El lenguaje utilizado por niños con muy bajo peso al nacer en la interacción temprana entre madre e hijo, con atención especial a la aparición de la gramática

The aim of the present study was to analyse the language used in early mother-child interactions by a selected cohort of 32 very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) children. The word types and inflectional types of Finnish used at 1;6 and 2;0 in mother-child interactions were analysed and compared to those of 35 full-term controls. Information concerning early grammatical development was also gathered using the Finnish version of Communicative Development Inventory at both age points. In addition, the children's language skills were tested at 2;0. Whereas only a few significant differences emerged between the groups at 1;6, at 2;0, the VLBW children had significantly weaker skills in nearly all variables. The variables analysed from mother-child interaction correlated significantly with the data gathered using other methods, suggesting that, at this age, VLBW children's overall language performance reflects well in the language they use in mother-child interaction. The results suggest that grammatical acquisition may be especially challenging for VLBW children at the end of the second year.