Preterm birth and risk for language delays before school entry: A sibling-control study.

We investigated whether children born preterm are at risk for language delay using a sibling-control design in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Participants included 26,769 siblings born between gestational weeks 23 and 42. Language delay was assessed when the children were 1.5, 3, and 5 years old. To adjust for familial risk factors, comparisons were conducted between preterm and full-term siblings. Pregnancy-specific risk factors were controlled for by means of observed variables. Findings showed that preterm children born before week 37 had increased risk for language delays at 1.5 years. At 3 and 5 years, only children born before week 34 had increased risk for language delay. Children born weeks 29-33 and before week 29 had increased risk for language delay at 1.5 years (RR = 4.51, 95% CI [3.45, 5.88]; RR = 10.32, 95% CI [6.7, 15.80]), 3 years (RR = 1.50, 95% CI [1.02, 2.21]; RR = 2.78, 95% CI [1.09, 7.07]), and 5 years (RR = 1.63, 95% CI [1.06, 2.51]; RR = 2.98, 95% CI [0.87, 10.26]), respectively. In conclusion, children born preterm are at risk for language delays, with familial confounders only explaining a moderate share of the association. This suggests a cause-effect relationship between early preterm birth and risk for language delay in preschool children.

Emotions in motion: impact of emotion understanding on children's peer action coordination.

Peer action coordination has been often studied in terms of its underlying cognitive mechanisms, and little is known about its emotional processes. The aim of the present study was to investigate the extent to which children's emotion understanding explains their coordination of actions with a peer in a cooperative sensorimotor problem-solving task. Sixty-eight 5- to 9-year-old children were assessed for their emotion understanding with the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) and for their problem-solving capacities with a sensorimotor task in an individual setting (individual sensorimotor skills) and in a cooperative setting (peer action coordination). The results showed that higher levels of emotion understanding significantly explained greater peer action coordination, even when controlling for age, gender and the child's individual sensorimotor skills. The findings point to the existence of emotional mechanisms - more specifically the role of emotion understanding - underlying successful coordination of actions in peer interaction. Theoretical and educational implications of having emotion understanding abilities for coordinating actions with others are discussed.

Maternal perinatal and concurrent depressive symptoms and child behavior problems: a sibling comparison study.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have found significant associations between maternal prenatal and postpartum depression and child behavior problems (CBP). The present study investigates whether associations remain in a prospective, longitudinal design adjusted for familial confounding. METHODS: The sample comprised 11,599 families including 17,830 siblings from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort study. Mothers reported depressive symptoms at gestational weeks 17 and 30, as well as 6 months, 1.5, 3, and 5 years postpartum. Fathers' depression was measured at gestational week 17. At the last three time-points, child internalizing and externalizing problems were concurrently assessed. We performed multilevel analyses for internalizing and externalizing problems separately, using parental depression as predictors. Analyses were repeated using a sibling comparison design to adjust for familial confounding. RESULTS: All parental depressive time-points were significantly and positively associated with child internalizing and externalizing problems. After sibling comparison, however, only concurrent maternal depression was significantly associated with internalizing [estimate = 2.82 (1.91-3.73, 95% CI)] and externalizing problems [estimate = 2.40 (1.56-3.23, 95% CI)]. The effect of concurrent maternal depression on internalizing problems increased with child age. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings do not support the notion that perinatal maternal depression is particularly detrimental to children's psychological development, as the most robust effects were found for maternal depression occurring during preschool years.

Trajectories of language delay from age 3 to 5: persistence, recovery and late onset.

BACKGROUND: Knowledge is scarce on what contributes to whether children with early language delay (LD) show persistent, recovering or sometimes late-onset LD without a prior history of early LD in subsequent preschool years. AIMS: To explore whether an integrative model of vital risk factors, including poor early communication skills, family history of language-related difficulties and male gender, predicts the development of persistent, recovering or late-onset LD trajectories from 3 to 5 years quantitatively and qualitatively differently. METHODS & PROCEDURES: LD was assessed by maternal reports on the Ages and Stages Questionnaire at 3 and 5 years for 10 587 children in The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. Children were classified across time as having no, late onset, transient or persistent LD. Multinomial logistic regression analyses included the integrative model of vital risk factors and covariates. OUTCOME & RESULTS: Across time, 3%, 5% and 6.5% of the children displayed persistent, transient and late-onset LD, respectively. The odds for persistent LD were doubled for boys and children with low language comprehension at 1.5 years; and tripled by late-talking familial risk. These same odds decreased for transient LD, and even further for late-onset LD. Familial risk for writing and reading difficulties especially increased the odds for late-onset and persistent LD, while familial risk of unintelligible speech increased the odds for transient LD. Although girls had on average far better language comprehension than boys, low language comprehension was a stronger risk factor for persistent LD in girls. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Preschool LD trajectories were uniquely predicted from the integrative risk model of poor early communicative skills, family history and male gender. This might benefit identification of different LD trajectories by supporting broader severe vulnerability for persistent LD, milder vulnerability for transient LD, and possibly a specific risk for reading and learning difficulties for children with late-onset LD.

Impact of gender, maternal education, and birth order on the development of language comprehension: a longitudinal study from 18 to 36 months of age.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of child gender, maternal education, and birth order on language comprehension (LC) status at 18 and 36 months of age and on the change in LC between these time points. Gender interactions and interactions between maternal education and birth order are also examined. METHODS: This study is based on data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Maternal report data on education, birth order, and child language in a sample of 44,921 children were used in linear regression analyses. RESULTS: At 18 and 36 months of age, first-born girls of mothers with high educational attainment had the highest level of LC. Between 18 and 36 months of age, first-born boys of mothers with high educational attainment had the highest increase in LC. Having a highly educated mother contributed more to the increase in LC in boys than in girls. The boys whose mothers had the highest education level had lower scores than the girls whose mothers had the lowest educational level, at both ages. Although significant, the considerable effect of high maternal education was not substantially dependent on birth-order status. CONCLUSIONS: Boys develop LC at a faster rate than girls between 18 and 36 months, but girls still remain superior in their level of LC at 36 months of age. Being firstborn or having a highly educated mother does not compensate for this lag.