What is it about?
In this study we wanted to get information on the effect of native language and background factors on lexical development of very preterm (born <32 gestational weeks) children at years of corrected age. We showed that although the lexicons of very preterm children were smaller than those of the controls, the native language had no major effect on their lexical composition.
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Why is it important?
Many matters may influence early lexical development of very preterm children. This study showed that native language had only minor effect on this development. The results also imply that lexical composition is a robust phenomenon that is connected to lexicon size and is not language-specific when analysed in broad terms, although some language-specific features were also detected.
Perspectives
Analysing lexical development of very preterm children from the cross-linguistic perspective was an interesting task. Results shed further light on the matter of which factor influence early lexical development of very preterm children.
Suvi Stolt
University of Helsinki
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This page is a summary of: Does the native language influence lexical composition in very preterm children at the age of two years? A cross-linguistic comparison study of Italian and Finnish children, First Language, March 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0142723717698006.
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