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Preterm Infants Exhibit Early Delays in Syllable-Object Perception
What is it about?
The authors examined term infants (gestational age 37-41 weeks) and preterm infants (gestational age 32–36 weeks) at 2 months. First, infants were repeatedly exposed to a synchronous video display of a single utterance, [tah] or [gah], spoken simultaneously with the motions of a toy object. Next, they were shown a display with only a syllable-change and another display of only an object-change. The preterm infants showed attenuated looking to both changes, demonstrating a delayed sensitivity to the simultaneous syllable–object pairing. In contrast, the term infants showed greater looking to both changes, demonstrating sensitivity to the simultaneous syllable-object pairing and detection of the subsequent changes.
Why is it important?
The study investigated whether the preterm infants presented with a delay in their sensitivity to synchronous syllable–object pairings relative to term infants. Given the important role that synchrony plays in learning the relations between words and objects during everyday word learning at 6–9 months, this delayed sensitivity to synchrony might be an early indicator of word learning delays found in preterm infants at later ages.