These children are at a higher risk for developing such problems themselves. In addition, we are trying to determine which children would gain most from early intervention programs we hope to develop. Children who are born this preterm have been found to be at an elevated risk for language and cognitive delays. We would like to determine if the difficulties which such children have in learning language are from general cognitive or attentional problems, or if they have more specific difficulties processing rapidly presented information. In addition, a number of children suffered subependymal and intraventricular brain hemorrhage.
Many children go on to have normal hearing and normal language.
However, a higher percentage of children who have repeated episodes of otitis media subsequently are found to have delayed language or specific language impairment. Conversely, children with language problems are more likely to have a history of recurrent otitis media. It may be the case that the alteration of speech sounds caused by such cyclic hearing changes could produce learned deficits in the ability to process rapidly presented sounds. In essence, the fluctuating hearing loss during the early years may present the child with a speech signal that is more diffuse and thus more difficult to process. This may be particularly critical if it occurs in the first year when the infant is establishing speech and language categories.