Linguistic skills at 61/2 years of age in children who required neonatal intensive care in 1986-1989

Linguistic skills at 61/2 y Of age, corrected for gestational age at birth, were examined in a cohort of 230 children who had required neonatal intens ive care (NIC) in 1986-89, and in 71 fullterm neonatally healthy control ch ildren (C) matched to the NIC children born at <32 gestational weeks. Ten l inguistic areas were assessed. The 10th percentile score of the controls wa s identified in each linguistic area and used for comparisons. In 77.5% of the controls and 63.5% of the NIC children, no score was lower than the 10t h percentile score of the controls. Scores lower than the 10th percentile s core were more common in NIC children horn at term or at 23-31 wk, and with in this group of children those born at 23-27 wk, than in controls. Conclusion: In preterm children of <32 wk the results in the linguistic are as of imitation of articulatory positions, comprehension of logical grammat ical constructions, phonemes and word fluency differed from those of the ma tched controls, and in NIC children born at greater than or equal to 32 wee ks the results for imitation of articulatory positions, articulatory patter ns and sentences, auditory discrimination and word fluency were poorer than those of the controls.