Background. Very preterm birth affects language development. Recent studies have highlighted that
these difficulties concern acquisition and consolidation of both lexical skills and grammar, leaving
open questions about differences in receptive and expressive skills. By contrast, very few studies
have analysed phonological skills at the end of preschool age.
Aims. To compare phonological, lexical and grammar skills of very preterm children (gestational
age <32 weeks) with those of typically developing children at age 5, investigating potential
differences in receptive and expressive skills, assessing whether difficulties are specific or related to
non-verbal cognitive development, and analysing relationships among language skills.
Method. One hundred and six monolingual Italian children were assessed at age 5 (29 very preterm
children compared to 77 typically developing children) through a standardized battery of language
(BVL 4-12, Marini et al., in press) and Raven’s coloured progressive matrices (CMP, Raven, 1947).
Results. Very preterm children showed difficulties in verbal auditory discrimination and lexical
skills (both lexical comprehension and naming) at age 5. Difficulties in receptive and expressive
lexicon persisted when controlling for non-verbal cognitive development. The analysis of partial
correlations showed similar patterns of relationships in preterm and typically developing children
with a slight difference in the magnitude.
Conclusions. The present study highlights the importance of analysing both receptive and
expressive language skills at the end of preschool in children born preterm, providing valuable
insights for planning effective and targeted follow-up for very preterm children.
