Conespondcnce M T Le Normand INSERM BStiment nouvelle phaimacie ^imt itage Neuropsychologie Clinique de I'enfant HSpital de la Salpftriire 47 Boulevard de l'hdpital 75651 Paris Cedex 13 France Language and motor development in pre-term children: some questions MTLe Normand, L Vaivre-Douret and M J Detfosse* INSERM, Hdpital de La Salp6tri6re, Paris and *H6pital Calmette, Lille, France Accepted for publication 24 August 1994 Summary A cohort of 37 pre-term ehlldren was assessed for both morphosyntactical and for vocabulary skills at the age of 2 and again at the age of 3 years and 6 months. They were compared with two comparison groups of full-term children (adjusted age and chronological age). The results Indicated (1) a clear asynchrony between the two components of language production assessed at both ages, (2) an accurate prediction of ianguage deiay at age 2 for pre-term chiidren (35% of pre-term chiidren were detected for morphosyntax as measured by Mean Length of Utterance and 27% of pre-term chiidren were detected for vocabuiary as measured by the number of different words) and, (3) no evidence on the reiationship of ianguage and motor deveiopment as measured by formal tests. Such findings strongiy chaiienge the validity of standardized deveiopmental tests and support to a certain extent the hypothesis that ianguage development is independent of motor sidiis. A neurodeveiopmental assessment is suggested. Keywords: language production, pre-term children, follow-up, motor skiils, neuro- developmental assessment ChOd: care, health and development VOLUMB 21 NUMBER 2 1995 PAOES 1 1 9 - 1 3 3 Introduction The data available on the early language abilities of pre-term children are somewhat contradictory. Several authors have suggested a high prevalence of speech and language problems among pre-term children (Kastein 19595 De 119