Hearing, Speech, and Language in Infants and Toddlers Born Prematurely

Worldwide, 15 million babies are “born too soon” every year (Blencowe et al., 2012; Howson et al., 2013). Remarkably, prematurity survival rates now exceed 93% across all countries. More than 360,000 preterm babies survived in the United States in 2020; 10% of all births (Blencowe et al., 2012; Howson et al., 2013). While this is an incredible achievement, preterm birth places the developing infant in a particularly vulnerable state for life-long adverse developmental outcomes. Due to improved survival rates, developmental disabilities, including hearing, visual, motor, cognitive, speech-language, and literacy deficits, have also increased (McCormick & Behrman, 2007). In addition to the medical and developmental consequences, the increased cost of raising a preterm child compared to a term-born child exceeds $134,000 or >60 billion annually in U.S. dollars, adjusted for the year 2023 (Mangham et al., 2009). In contrast, the cost of early intervention is a relative bargain, at $1,240 per preterm infant, adjusted for the year 2023 (Clements et al., 2007). Early intervention is highly likely to be effective, based on the remarkable plasticity of the newborn brain (White et al., 2013).