Abstract

Introduction. The stock of phonemes used in the mother tongue is mostly acquired towards the end of the first year of life. Systematic exposure to speech begins, maintains and enhances the learning of native phonemes and lowers sensitivity to non-native ones. Speech deprival gives rise to serious problems in the infant's phonological development, yet little is known about the effects that premature exposure to speech can have on this learning. This study explores this issue by comparing the phonological discrimination of full-term and preterm infants at 12 months of age (corrected age in the preterm infants). Subjects and methods. An analysis was performed to evaluate a sample of 24 preterm babies and two cohorts of full-term infants (26 and 27 children, respectively), all of whom were healthy. Phonological discrimination was assessed using the event-related evoked potentials technique. Results. Full-term and preterm infants achieve the same level of phonological discrimination at the age of 12 months (corrected age in the preterm infants). But it is suggested that preterm infants need to use more memory resources than those required by full-term children. Conclusions. The phonological acquisition evaluated at one year of age offers similar levels of performance in both fullterm and preterm infants.