The development of speech in early childhood in children from twin pregnancies with twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS)

Abstract

Abstract The aim of the study was verifying, whether speech development is conditioned by a preterm birth, multiple pregnancy or pregnancy complicated with TTTS. We examined 52 preterm children, 15 of which were born after a single pregnancy and 42 after a multiple pregnancy. 23 children came from a pregnancy complicated by TTTS. The average age of the subjects was 32.5 months (SD=5.54). The research methods used in our study were as follows: analysis of medical documentation, a structured clinical interview and psychological conversation. Speech development of a child was assessed using BSID-III. An analysis of the results we obtained showed that there was a lower level of EC in the TTTS children in comparison to multiple-birth children without TTTS and single-birth children. We also found statistically significant relations between the EC scores and gender, age at the time of testing, disability, gestational age, birth weight.