Examining How Parents Respond to Their Infant: The Difference Between Full-term and Preterm Infants

Preterm infants born with a low birthweight are at risk for developmental delays both physically and cognitively. Research suggests that preterm infants struggle to meet developmental milestones in the same way that their full-term counterparts do, especially when it comes to their language development. This study examined the quantitative (i.e., number of words infants heard, amount of child vocalizations) and qualitative (i.e., contingent responding between infants and caregivers, proportion of infant-directed speech) in three cohorts of infants 1) infants born preterm (8-9-months chronological age; 6-months corrected age; n=6), 2) gestational age-matched full-term infants (~ 6 months chronological age), and 3) chronological age-matched full-term infants (~ 8-9 months chronological age) using the Language ENvironmental Analysis (LENA) system. Further quality measures included the types of vocalizations the infants made and the latency of response time between caregivers and infants during their interactions. Descriptive analyses of the LENA’s quantitative measures revealed that preterm infants do not vocalize nearly the same amount as their full-term counterparts. Further analyses of the quality of their interactions revealed that, in spite of preterm infants vocalizing less, parents responded to their infants quicker than their full-term peers’ parents did and interacted just as often. In sum, there is quite a bit of individual differences in infants’ language environments, and preterm infants seem to be behind in their vocal interactions than their full-term counterparts.