SPEECH-PERCEPTION AND SPEECH COMPREHENSION INVESTIGATIONS OF PRETERM NEWBORNS AND HIGH-RISK NEONATES OF PRESCHOOL AGE

The purpose of this study is to establish whether there is any connect ion between neonatal morbidity and speech perception and comprehension in children of pre-school age who have previously been treated as new born infants in an intensive care unit. The test applied is a method i nvented in Hungary for the analysis of global hearing, speech percepti on and comprehension. The authors summarize the results of their follo w-up studies of 52 children with respiratory disorders as newborns, so me of whom were born as pre-term and some as full-term newborns with a sphyxia. The children have been put into three groups according to the ir maturity and their birthweight. Newborns with hearing loss and ment al retardation were excluded from this study. Of the various neonatal factors the results show: complications of delivery, birthweight, hypo xia, persistent ductus arteriosus, duration of ventilation and complic ations of respiratory treatment are found to be correlated to percepti on and comprehension. Incidences of poor achievement obtained in the m ost characteristic subtests have been compared among the different gro ups of newborns. The intelligence level of pre-school children is foun d to be closely correlated to speech perception and comprehension.