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CLINICAL TRIAL article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Developmental Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1393246

Impact of an Early Educational Protocol on the Oral Language of Children born Preterm Exhibiting Phonological Fragility

Provisionally accepted
Charollais M. Aude Charollais M. Aude 1,2,3*vincent laudenbach vincent laudenbach 3Caroline Thill Caroline Thill 4jasques benichou jasques benichou 4marie-helene stumpf marie-helene stumpf 3Thierry DEBILLON Thierry DEBILLON 5benoit delaporte benoit delaporte 6valerie datin dorrierre valerie datin dorrierre 7olivier flechelles olivier flechelles 2marie farmer marie farmer 8
  • 1 Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Martinique, Fort de France, France
  • 2 University Hospital of Martinique, Fort-de-France, Martinique
  • 3 Université de Rouen, Mont-Saint-Aignan, Upper Normandy, France
  • 4 Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) de Rouen, Rouen, France
  • 5 Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Grenoble, La Tronche, Rhône-Alpes, France
  • 6 Hospital Group Du Havre, Le Havre, Upper Normandy, France
  • 7 Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Caen, Caen, Lower Normandy, France
  • 8 Département de Pédiatrie, Faculté de Médecine et des Sciences de la Santé, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    We conducted a six-center, prospective, randomized, open-label trial to assess whether an early standardized educational protocol provided from 42 to 48 months of age improved the progression of oral language and phonological development in children born preterm. A total of 552 children were included in this study. Children with phonological fragility were randomized to receive the educational protocol (guided arm, n = 87) or not (non-guided arm, n = 78). In the guided arm, oral language development used a short "say and do" type educational protocol designed to maintain visual attention and train the developmental phonology/lexicon/morphosyntax structural links. In contrast, a conservative approach was used in the non-guided arm. A total of 70 guided and 73 non-guided children completed the study. After six months, educated children showed a non-significant increase in their phonology score (p = 0.37), while variations in the scores of the expressive lexicon (secondary endpoints) were significantly improved (p = 0.0008). We conclude that short, standardized stimulation of the sensorimotor aspects of language in children born very preterm increases the expressive lexicon. This protocol improves the language of premature children, especially those with minimal motor skills, with more significant improvement in phonological scores.

    Keywords: prematurity1, oral language disorder2, language and motor skills3 school-age4 child born preterm5, phonology score6, education speaking

    Received: 15 Apr 2024; Accepted: 02 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Aude, laudenbach, Thill, benichou, stumpf, DEBILLON, delaporte, datin dorrierre, flechelles and farmer. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Charollais M. Aude, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Martinique, Fort de France, France

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