Influence of socioeconomic characteristics of family on auditory development of prematurely born children

Abstract

Auditory behavior is a social skill representing specific response to stimulation by sound, speech or other acoustic stimuli. Normal hearing newborn babies prefer their mother's voice to any other due to experience during the late intrauterine development. Some prematurely born babies lack that experience and acquire their first acoustic experience under specific conditions in neonatal intensive care unit. Te lack of family environment, separation from mother and high ambient noise could have negative impact on early auditory development of a prematurely born child. Te goal of the study was to investigate the impact of socioeconomic characteristics of family on auditory development of prematurely born children during the first year of life. Te sample consisted of 150 prematurely born children of both genders, born in the Republic of Serbia. Data about family environment were obtained from parents or case history, while auditory development was assessed by LittlEARS® auditory scale. Te results of the study showed that permanent employment of the mother and occasional employment of the father had a positive correlation with higher auditory achievement in children at the corrected age of 12 months. Analysis of the impact of family factors on trajectories of auditory development in prematurely born children showed that father's occasional employment improved the pace of auditory development, while siblings in the family significantly improved auditory achievement initially. Te results imply that multiple heterogeneous auditory (especially language) stimulation during the first year of life have a positive impact on auditory development of preterm babies regardless of the prematurity level.

Keywords

• auditory development
• socioeconomic characteristics
• family
• prematurely born children