USING THE CLINICAL LINGUISTIC AND AUDITORY MILESTONE SCALE FOR DEVELOPMENTAL SCREENING IN HIGH-RISK PRETERM INFANTS

Eighty-one preterm infants (mean gestational age 29 weeks, range 24-36 weeks) discharged from The Johns Hopkins Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit were followed up sequentially from birth to 2 years of age b y use of the Clinical Linguistic and Auditory Milestone Scale (CLAMS) to evaluate language development. Children were studied during three t ime intervals: Interval 1: 3-5 months chronologic age (CA); Interval 2 : 9-14-months (CA); and Interval 3: 18-24 months (CA). Psychometric te st scores were compared with CLAMS Language Quotients (LQ) by use of f ull, partial (75%, 50%, 25%), and no ''correction'' for weeks of prema turity to determine whether ''correcting'' for prematurity would yield a more accurate estimate of eventual cognitive outcome. CLAMS LQ at I nterval 1 was highly correlated with CLAMS LQ at Interval 2 and CLAMS LQ at Interval 2 correlated well with CLAMS LQ at Interval 3 (r=0.57 a nd 0.64, respectively, P=0.0001). Correlations indicated that there wa s an orderly sequential development of language in the preterm infant. CLAMS evaluations correlated significantly with psychometric test res ults during Interval 2 and Interval 3 (r=0.34, P<0.02 and r=0.75, P=0. 0001, respectively). The CLAMS proved to be a useful instrument for mo nitoring preterm language development in the primary pediatric care se tting.