Deficits in neural encoding of speech in preterm infants.

Preterm children show developmental cognitive and language deficits that can be subtle and sometimes undetectable until later in life. Studies of brain development in children who are born preterm have largely focused on vascular and gross anatomical characteristics rather than pathophysiological processes that may contribute to these developmental deficits. Neural encoding of speech as reflected in EEG recordings is predictive of future language development and could provide insights into those pathophysiological processes. We recorded EEG from 45 preterm (≤ 34 weeks of gestation) and 45 term (≥ 38 weeks) Chinese-learning infants 0-12 months of (corrected) age during natural sleep. Each child listened to three speech stimuli that differed in lexically meaningful pitch (2 native and 1 non-native speech categories). EEG measures associated with synchronization and gross power of the frequency following response (FFR) were examined. ANCOVAs revealed no main effect of stimulus nativeness but main effects of age, consistent with earlier studies. A main effect of prematurity also emerged, with synchronization measures showing stronger group differences than power. By detailing differences in FFR measures related to synchronization and power, this study brings us closer to identifying the pathophysiological pathway to often subtle language problems experienced by preterm children.

Effects of Pediatric Anticipatory Guidance on Mothers of Young Children.

Provision of anticipatory guidance to parents during well-child visits is a defining component of pediatric primary care. Using nationally representative data from the 2000 U.S. National Survey of Early Childhood Health, this study addressed the questions of whether, how, and what mothers of children below age 3 with different ethnic/racial background could benefit from anticipatory guidance. Structural equation modeling results showed that across ethnic/racial groups, guidance was directly associated with decreased maternal stress and directly and indirectly associated with effective parenting practices in child development, discipline, and safety. Moreover, guidance was consistently associated with decreased stress (effect size = .159/.123/.252) and increased effective parenting practices in child development (total effect = .090/.179/.296), discipline (total effect = .079/.138/.111), and safety (total effect = .186/.204/.229) in White/Black/Latino groups, respectively. Finally, whereas guidance was directly associated with child safety in all groups, it was indirectly contributed to child development and discipline via maternal stress in the Latino group only.