Speech and language skills in children who required neonatal intensive care: evaluation at 6.5 y of age based on interviews with parents.

Speech and language skills at 6.5 y of age were studied in a follow-up of a cohort of children who had required neonatal intensive care (NIC) at Uppsala University Children's Hospital. An interview with the parents indicated that preterm and full-term NIC children were older than control children when they reached certain stages in language development (short sentences, intelligible speech). Absence of babbling was more common in NIC children born at 23-27 wk than in other preterm NIC children, and occurrence of stuttering was more commonly noticed in preterm NIC children born at 23-27 wk than in those born at >32 wk and controls.