The Effect of Bilingual Exposure on Executive Function Skills in Preterm and Full-Term Preschoolers

A Preliminary Study of Executive Functioning in Preterm-Born Children: A Bilingual Advantage

BACKGROUND

Preterm-born children are at increased risk for deficits in executive function (EF). EF is a set of cognitive processes including inhibition, attention, memory, and decision-making, among others. Bilingualism, operationalized as productive capacity in 2 languages (ie, English and Spanish), may enhance EF in children born preterm and in term-born children.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of bilingualism on executive functioning in bilingual and monolingual preterm and term-born children using a robust measure of bilingualism.

METHODS

This study examined the impact of bilingualism on EF in 17 monolingual or bilingual preterm-born children, aged 6 to 7. The preterm-born sample was also compared with a normed, term-born sample of 38 monolingual, typically developing 6- to 7-year-olds.

RESULTS

On the Creature Counting task of EF, bilingual preterm-born children performed with more accuracy and total switches than monolingual preterm-born children. There was no difference in accuracy between the term-born and entire preterm-born samples. The bilingual, preterm-born children performed more accurately than the term-born sample.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE AND RESEARCH

This preliminarily suggests bilingualism confers an advantage to preterm-born children's EF. Further research is needed on bilingual advantage of preterm-born children.

The impact of preterm birth on the executive functioning of preschool children: A systematic review

This paper presents a systematic review of the impact of preterm childbirth on the later executive functioning of preschool-aged children. A systematic search for studies published between 2014 and 2019 was performed using the following keywords: executive funct* AND preterm AND child. The methodological quality of the reports was examined using the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) statement. Thirty-two studies were reviewed and scored at least 67% on the methodological quality assessment. In comparison to children born full-term, preschool children born preterm exhibit executive functioning deficits in the dimensions of the global index, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, working memory, and planning/executive functioning. These findings are independent of the degree of prematurity at birth. Since executive functioning has many complex components, future studies should assess the dimensions of executive functioning separately in preschool-aged children born preterm, rather than as a single measure.

Bilinguals who stutter: A cognitive perspective

PURPOSE

Brain differences, both in structure and executive functioning, have been found in both developmental stuttering and bilingualism. However, the etiology of stuttering remains unknown. The early suggestion that stuttering is a result of brain dysfunction has since received support from various behavioral and neuroimaging studies that have revealed functional and structural brain changes in monolinguals who stutter (MWS). In addition, MWS appear to show deficits in executive control. However, there is a lack of data on bilinguals who stutter (BWS). This literature review is intended to provide an overview of both stuttering and bilingualism as well as synthesize areas of overlap among both lines of research and highlight knowledge gaps in the current literature.

METHODS

A systematic literature review on both stuttering and bilingualism studies was conducted, searching for articles containing "stuttering" and/or "bilingualism" and either "brain", "executive functions", "executive control", "motor control", "cognitive reserve", or "brain reserve" in the PubMed database. Additional studies were found by examining the reference list of studies that met the inclusion criteria.

RESULTS

A total of 148 references that met the criteria for inclusion in this paper were used in the review. A comparison of the impact of stuttering or bilingualism on the brain are discussed.

CONCLUSION

Previous research examining a potential bilingual advantage for BWS is mixed. However, if such an advantage does exist, it appears to offset potential deficits in executive functioning that may be associated with stuttering.

Negative affectivity moderated by preterm birth predicted toddlers' behavior problems

OBJECTIVE

The present study aimed to examine the predictive effect of temperament moderated by preterm childbirth on behavioral problems in toddlerhood.

METHOD

The sample comprised 100 toddlers of 18-36 months of chronological age and their mothers. They were divided into two groups: 50 toddlers born preterm and admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (PT group), and 50 toddlers born full-term (FT group) and recruited from day-care centers. Mothers completed questionnaires about toddlers' temperament and behavior. The Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire was used to assess temperament, and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL 1¹/²-5) to evaluate the total, internalizing, and externalizing behavior problems. Multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the moderation effects of preterm childbirth and temperament factors after controlling for toddlers' age and socioeconomic level.

RESULTS

There was a moderation effect between preterm childbirth and temperament. Temperament with more Negative Affectivity, moderated by preterm birth, and less Effortful Control explained the total, internalizing, and externalizing behavior problems.

CONCLUSION

The findings contribute to a better understanding of the impact of preterm childbirth and the dispositional traits of temperament on behavioral problems of toddlers born preterm.

Multilingualism was associated with lower cognitive outcomes in children who were born very and extremely preterm

Aim

This study determined whether cognitive outcomes differed between very preterm (VPT) and extremely preterm (EPT) children who were monolingual or multilingual when they reached the corrected ages of two and five years.

Methods

The data were collected at the Emma Children's Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, as part of our national neonatal follow‐up programme and comprised 325 VPT/EPT children born between January 1, 2007 and January 1, 2012. The study used the Third Editions of the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence.

Results

We compared 234 monolingual children, 65 multilingual children who spoke Dutch and at least one foreign language at home and 26 multilingual children who didn't speak Dutch at home. The best performers on the cognitive scale at two years of age and the verbal subscales at five years of age were the monolingual children, followed by the children who spoke Dutch and at least one foreign language at home, then the children who only spoke foreign languages at home.

Conclusion

In our study cohort from The Netherlands, multilingualism lowered the cognitive and verbal outcomes of VPT/EPT children at the corrected ages of two and five years.

Recovery of Working Memory Following Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: A Longitudinal Analysis

In a prospective longitudinal study, the trajectory of verbal and visual-spatial working memory (WM) development was examined 2-, 6-, 12-, and 24-months following complicated-mild to severe pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI; n = 55) relative to an orthopedic injury comparison group (n = 47). Individual growth curve modeling revealed an interaction of age, severity, and time for verbal, but not visual-spatial WM. The youngest children with severe TBI had the lowest scores and slowest verbal WM growth. WM outcome is best understood in light of age at injury and TBI severity. Findings support the early vulnerability hypothesis and highlight the need for long-term follow-up.