Are early grammatical and phonological working memory abilities affected by preterm birth? Alessandra Sansavini a, * , Annalisa Guarini a , Rosina Alessandroni b , Giacomo Faldella b , Giuliana Giovanelli a , Gianpaolo Salvioli b a Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Italy b Institute of Neonatology and Pediatrics, University of Bologna, Italy Received 23 January 2006; received in revised form 6 June 2006; accepted 16 June 2006 Abstract There have been few investigations of the effects of very immature preterm birth on specific linguistic competencies and phonological working memory at preschool age. Study 1 aimed to investigate early grammatical abilities in very immature healthy preterms, taking into account their cognitive development and biological and social factors. The linguistic and cognitive differences found between preterms and fullterms led to investigate in Study 2 the role of phonological working memory on preterms’ grammatical development. Very immature preterm birth resulted to affect grammatical, cognitive and phonological working memory abilities until 3.5 years leading to persisting difficulties in comparison with fullterms, albeit not severe deficits. Tight relations between phonological working memory and grammar were found both in preterms and fullterms, that highlights the reciprocal support of these abilities in development. A partial compensatory effect by the maternal level of education on preterms’ grammatical and cognitive abilities was also found. Learning outcomes: The reader will become familiar with the relations between grammatical and phonological working memory abilities in typical and preterm 3.5-year-old children. # 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Journal of Communication Disorders 40 (2007) 239–256 * Corresponding author at: Dipartimento di Psicologia, Universita ` degli Studi di Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat, 5, 40127 Bologna, Italy. Tel.: +39 051 2091879; fax: +39 051 243086. E-mail address: alessandra.sansavini@unibo.it (A. Sansavini). 0021-9924/$ – see front matter # 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2006.06.009