Communication profile of primary school-aged children with foetal growth restriction:

Foetal growth restriction is associated with problems in neurocognitive development. In the present study, prospectively collected cohorts of foetal growth restricted (FGR) and appropriate for gestational age grown (AGA) children were examined at early school-age by using the Children’s Communication Checklist-2 (CCC-2) to test the hypothesis that FGR children demonstrate poorer communication skills than AGA children. Furthermore, potential differences between FGR children born prematurely and at term were evaluated, as well as the effect of assessment age on CCC-2 performance. The FGR-children demonstrated poorer language structure and language use than the AGA group. Nineteen percent of the FGR children scored below the 15th percentile threshold value in General Communication Composite, compared to 7% of the AGA children, indicating clinically significant problems in communication skills. Furthermore, impaired communication skills became more evident as the FGR children reached ⩾ 9 years of age. Prematu...