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Browsing by Subject "erittäin pienenä keskosena syntynyt lapsi"

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  • Karhu, Elisa (2021)
    Objectives. Prematurely born (<37 gestational weeks) children are at increased risk for difficulties in language development and literacy skills, including pre-reading skills, reading and writing. Previous studies investigating full-term populations suggest that language skills are strongly correlated with reading acquisition. This connection is not widely studied in preterm sample and the findings of previous investigations have incongruity. The aim of this study is to examine the language development and literacy skills of children born extremely preterm (ELGA, born <28 gestational weeks) and/or with extremely low birth weight (ELBW, birth weight <1000 grams) at seven years of age. This thesis also investigates the possible association between language abilities and literacy skills in the sample of preterm children and a full-term born comparison group (born >37 gestational weeks). This study is part of the multidisciplinary cohort study of prematurely born children called PIPARI (the Development and Functioning of Very Low Birth Weight Infants from Infancy to School Age). Methods. The sample of this Master´s thesis includes 63 ELGA/ELBW children and 107 full-term born children who participated in the PIPARI study and were living in monolingual Finnish-speaking families. The language skills were assessed using the Five to Fifteen parent questionnaire (subdomains Comprehension, Expressive language skills, Verbal Communication) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised. Pre-reading and reading skills were measured with the Jyväskylä First Steps study test material (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, rapid automized naming, single word reading, single word writing) and with the Five to Fifteen parent questionnaire (subdomains Reading and writing, General learning). Results and conclusion. The language and literacy skills at seven years of age were statistically significantly weaker in children born ELGA/ELBW when compared to the full-term controls. The Five to Fifteen questionnaire subdomain Verbal communication was the only skill that did not differ significantly between the groups. There was a clear and significant association between language and literacy skills with both preterm and full-term groups. In the preterm group the connection between language and literacy skills were stronger and appeared wider among the different language components. The results of this study support the previous findings that preterm children have an elevated risk for difficulties in language and literacy skills. In addition, this study provides further evidence for the associations between language abilities and literacy skills in school age in children born ELGA/ELBW. It is important that preterm children get the appropriate developmental follow-ups and support still at school age.