Association of Language Skills with Other Developmental Domains in Extremely, Very, and Moderately Preterm Children: EPIPAGE 2 Cohort Study

Objective To analyze language skills in children born at 24-34 weeks of gestation at 2 years of corrected age and the association between language and other developmental domains. Study design We included 2424 children (64% of the eligible population) from the French population-based EPIPAGE 2 cohort study. At 2 years’ corrected age, children were screened with the French short version of the MacArthur-Bates Communication Developmental Inventories and the Ages and Stages Questionnaire completed by parents. Results Small lexicon size, Conclusions These results highlight the usefulness of the MacArthur-Bates Communication Developmental Inventories in preterm children, especially those who do not participate in specialized follow-up. A small lexicon size points to developmental difficulties in language and increased risk for other developmental and neurobehavioral functions.