Desempeño lingüistico en niños escolares con antecedentes de prematuridad extrema

Abstract

Los avances médicos en los últimos años han permitido que la sobrevida de los niños nacidos con menos de 32 semanas de gestación aumente. Es por ello que la población de prematuros extremos ha ido en un constante aumento, lo que vuelve necesario el centrar en ellos el objetivo de investigaciones para así ahondar en sus potenciales dificultades lingüísticas. La presente investigación tiene como objetivo el describir el desempeño lingüístico de niños chilenos escolares de 1° básico con antecedentes de prematuridad extrema, controlados en el programa de seguimiento de prematuros del CRS Cordillera, comparando su rendimiento con el de niños nacidos de término con desarrollo típico del lenguaje. Para dicho propósito, se evaluaron los niveles fonológico, morfosintáctico, discurso narrativo y pragmático. Los resultados obtenidos apuntan a que el desarrollo de los menores con antecedentes de prematuridad extrema no difiere significativamente de los de término, incluso presentan un mejor desempeño en el área de morfosintaxis. Estos resultados pueden haberse visto influenciados por variables no controladas al momento de la investigación, como fue el tipo de establecimiento educacional al cual los niños asisten, las posibilidades de atención fonoaudiológica temprana que tuvieron los menores prematuros extremos en el marco del programa de seguimiento y el número de participantes en la muestra. Por esto, se sugiere la realización de nuevas investigaciones orientadas a describir el desempeño lingüístico de esta población, controlando estas variables, con el fin de obtener resultados generalizables que permitan orientar de forma eficiente la evaluación, intervención y pronóstico de estos niños.

Medical advances in recent years have allowed the survival of children born before 32 weeks gestation increases. That is why the population of extremely premature infants has been on a steady rise, it becomes necessary to focus future research on them in order to deepen in their potential linguistic difficulties. This research aims to describe the linguistic performance of Chilean children at 1st grade of primary school with history of extreme prematurity, followed in the monitoring program premature CRS Cordillera, comparing their performance against children without prematurity history. For this purpose, the phonological, morphosyntactic, pragmatic and narrative speaking levels have been measured. The results obtained suggest that the development of children with history of extreme prematurity did not differ significantly from those without history of prematurity, and even perform better in the area of morphosyntax. These results may have been influenced by uncontrolled variables at the time of investigation. Variables like the type of educational institution where children attend, the opportunity of early speech therapy care of extremely premature children under the monitoring program, and the size of the sample. Therefore, it is suggested doing further research oriented on describing the linguistic performance of this population, controlling for these variables, in order to obtain robust results which allows to guide efficiently the assessment, intervention and prognosis of these children.

Medical advances in recent years have allowed the survival of children born before 32 weeks gestation increases. That is why the population of extremely premature infants has been on a steady rise, it becomes necessary to focus future research on them in order to deepen in their potential linguistic difficulties. This research aims to describe the linguistic performance of Chilean children at 1st grade of primary school with history of extreme prematurity, followed in the monitoring program premature CRS Cordillera, comparing their performance against children without prematurity history. For this purpose, the phonological, morphosyntactic, pragmatic and narrative speaking levels have been measured. The results obtained suggest that the development of children with history of extreme prematurity did not differ significantly from those without history of prematurity, and even perform better in the area of morphosyntax. These results may have been influenced by uncontrolled variables at the time of investigation. Variables like the type of educational institution where children attend, the opportunity of early speech therapy care of extremely premature children under the monitoring program, and the size of the sample. Therefore, it is suggested doing further research oriented on describing the linguistic performance of this population, controlling for these variables, in order to obtain robust results which allows to guide efficiently the assessment, intervention and prognosis of these children.