Preemie Milestones are important to know and understand. Keeping an eye on your preemies development and checking when they reach certain milestones can help you determine when a little help might be necessary.

Preemie milestones can keep you both on track

When understanding preemie milestones is important to learn a little bit of information on the typical development of various skills, as well as some information about signs that may indicate problems with development. If your preemie is not meeting the milestones mentioned you may want to talk to your paediatrician about your preemie's development.

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Language Development

Keeping an eye on your preemie's development can help you determine when a little help might be necessary

It’s amazing how quickly babies grow and develop! The table below highlights some important milestones. Although the table gives an average age at which milestones are achieved it is important to realize that even babies born at term achieve these milestones at varying ages. For preemies, you should always correct for their prematurity.

Language Development in Preemies

Have a look at the following information for typical development of aspects of language. You should talk to your pediatrician if you have any concerns about your preemie's development.

language development milestones and preterm birth

Age	Phonology	Semantics	Grammar	Pragmatics	Metalinguistic Awareness
Birth – 1 month	Categorical speech perception is present (e.g. a giraffe is an animal) Speech sounds become organised into phonemic categories of native language. An example of phoneme is the /a/ sound in the words apple and ape) Variation in tone when speaking and sound patterns of babbling begin to resemble those of native language	Shows increased sensitivity to stress patterns and phoneme sequences in words of native language develops Demonstrates preference for sound patterns of native tongue Preverbal gestures develop	Understanding of natural sentence structure begins to develop	Can return attention to caregiver Begin to engage in vocal exchanges and turn-taking games
1-2 years	Start to apply strategies to simplify word pronunciation	Produce their first words – increases to several hundred words Object words are used first, followed soon after by action and state words	Simple two-word utterances of speech appear (e.g. “give ball”) Start using grammatical morphemes (e.g. adding “ness” to “sad” to make “sadness”)	Become more skillful in conversational turn-taking and maintaining topic
3-5 years	Large improvement in pronunciation	Use of new words increase Begin using simple metaphors that are based on concrete and sensory comparisons (e.g. steer clear of dad today)	Sentences begin to reflect an appreciation of adult grammatical categories Increased use of grammatical morphemes Many complex grammatical structures are added	Conversational strategies, such as the turnabout, appear Can understand illocutionary intent in speech (e.g. asking “Is there any pepper?” at the dinner table means the person would like the pepper, rather than literally interested if there is any pepper) Can be more flexible with speech to adjust for social expectations	The beginnings of metalinguistic awareness appears (i.e. can think about language and its relationship to culture and society)
6-10 years	Pronunciations that indicate subtle differences in meaning are mastered	By school age vocabulary includes about 10,000 words Meanings of words are understood on the basis of definitions Can understand the multiple meanings of a word and can use to improve understanding of metaphors and humour	Complex grammatical structures continue to be refined	Advanced conversational strategies develop Improved understanding of illocutionary intent Demanding contexts improve	Metalinguistic awareness develops rapidly
11years- adulthood	Changes in syllabic stress after certain difficult words take on endings are mastered	Large improvement in vocabulary, including many abstract terms; building to over 40,000 words Improvement in understanding of subtle, nonliteral word meanings, such as in irony and sarcasm	Continued refinement of complex grammatical structures	Referential communication, such as giving and following directions, asking questions, giving explanations, and detecting unclear messages continues to improve	Metalinguistic awareness continues to be refined

These milestones represent overall age trends. There are individual differences in the exact age at which each milestone is attained (Berk, 2008).

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You can read about this topic in more detail and learn all about preemies and development from our book: "The Complete Preemie Guide to: Preemie Development." Available Here
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Preemie, Premmie, or Prem?

Most babies spend between 38 and 42 weeks in their mother’s uterus. So, technically a preterm birth, preemie, premmie, or prem, is an infant who is born less than 37 completed gestational weeks.

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