Language development of extremely premature infants: parental orientation

ABSTRACT Purpose: to analyze the linguistic development of extremely premature children at birth, through the Initial Speech and Language Acquisition Scale, and to verify the knowledge of these children's parents about language. Methods: the study included 21 parents of extremely premature children at birth. A booklet on the development of children's language and a questionnaire was prepared for the study, in order to investigate the efficiency of guidance to parents. Initially, the children were assessed using the Initial Speech and Language Acquisition Scale, and then, the parents received oral guidance on how to stimulate their children's language. Therefore, the questionnaire was applied to verify the impact of the guidelines on their knowledge. The data obtained through the scale were related to the answers obtained through the questionnaire applied to the parents, through descriptive percentages and Mann-Whitney test, with p<0.05. Results: most of the children performed as expected for their age in the evaluated aspects. The questionnaire showed that most parents had guidance on the general development of their children, but only half of them had knowledge about language. All participants felt contemplated with the educational material. Conclusion: despite the extreme prematurity, most children performed as expected for their age in terms of language, and parents had moderate knowledge on language.