Speech perception and speech comprehension investigations of pre-term newborns and high-risk neonates of pre-school age

The purpose of this study is to establish whether there is any connection between neonatal morbidity and speech perception and comprehension in children of pre-school age who have previously been treated as newborn infants in an intensive care unit. The test applied is a method invented in Hungary for the analysis of global hearing, speech perception and comprehension. The authors summarize the results of their follow-up studies of 52 children with respiratory disorders as newborns, some of whom were born as pre-term and some as full-term newborns with asphyxia. The children have been put into three groups according to their maturity and their birthweight. Newborns with hearing loss and mental retardation were excluded from this study. Of the various neonatal factors the results show: complications of delivery, birthweight, hypoxia, persistent ductus arteriosus, duration of ventilation and complications of respiratory treatment are found to be correlated to perception and comprehension. Incidences of poor achievement obtained in the most characteristic subtests have been compared among the different groups of newborns. The intelligence level of pre-school children is found to be closely correlated to speech perception and comprehension.