Comunicazione gestuale e sviluppo linguistico nei bambini nati pretermine

Gestural communication and linguistic development in children born pre-term Several studies on typically developing children have demonstrated an inherent continuity between the ability to use communicative gestures and subsequent linguistic development. In particular, the production of pointing, as well as its onset, are valid predictors of language production and comprehension. The development of communicative gestures has also been explored in atypically developing populations, starting from the assumption that gestural communication may compensate for deficits or delays in linguistic development. However, with regards to children born pre-term, studies on gestural communication have not been carried out. This study aims to examine the development of communicative gestures in a group of children born pre-term. Further, the relation between the ability to produce communicative gestures and the development of productive and receptive vocabularies shall be investigated. 17 preterm children, with their mothers, participated in a 15 minute video-recorded session of play with objects when they were 12 and 18 months of corrected age. All spontaneous gestural productions were coded as deictic, referential and emphatic; moreover, mental and motor development was assessed by means of Bayley Scales of Infant Development and linguistic competences with MacArthur Communicative Inventory. Results indicate that at both developmental stages the children showed low levels of comunicative-gestural productions, despite the continuity in the individual differences with regard to the frequency of gestures produced per minute. In particular, the production of pointing seems to be associated to both the Bayley Scales scores and, to a lesser degree, to the gestational age and birth-weight. Regarding the relation between communicative gestures and language development a positive correlation between pointing gestures and linguistic comprehension was found, as well as an association between the production of referential gestures and productive vocabulary size.