Dramatic differences in tests assessing preschoolers’ language skills

Researchers examined the impact of preterm birth on language outcomes in preschoolers born preterm and full-term, using both standardized assessment and language sample analysis. They also explored semantic skills and grammatical ability, and nonlinguistic developmental skills of nonverbal intelligence, attention, and hyperactivity. Results show that language difficulties at the discourse level may still exist even when children who are born preterm appear to be developing typically when they are evaluated by standardized assessments of global language ability, cognition, and attention.