Abstract: Objective To investigate the effect of preterm delivery on early language, sleep and cognitive development in infants.Methods From September 2019 to September 2020, 34 premature infants aged 12 to 36 months who visited the high-risk infant clinic of Liuzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine were selected as the study group, and 124 infants born at term who had no high-risk factors during the routine physical examination of the child care clinic during the same period were selected as the control group.The Early Language Development Process Scale(EIMS) was used to evaluate the language development, the Brief Sleep Questionnaire for Infants and Young children(BISQ) was used to investigate the sleep status, and the neuropsychological scale for children aged 0 to 6 years was used to evaluate the intelligent cognitive development of the two groups.Results There were statistically significant differences in the total developmental quotient and the three subscale developmental quotients of the two groups(P<0.05).There were statistically significant differences between the two groups in the latency to sleep and the duration of nocturnal awakenings, the study group being longer than the control group（P<0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in the duration of daytime sleep, duration of night sleep, total duration of 24-hour sleep, or the number of nocturnal awakenings(P>0.05).In cognitive development, there were statistically significant differences in developmental quotient of the four functional areas of fine movement, adaptability, language and social interaction, the study group was lower than the control group(P<0.05).There was no statistically significant difference in the development quotient of major motor energy regions(P>0.05).Conclusion The development of preterm infants is different from that of full-term infants in terms of early language and latency at night, so early intervention should be given, to promote the neural development and maturity of preterm infants and improve the long-term prognosis.Combined assessment of early language development and sleep function may serve as a warning indicator for early screening of brain development in infants at high risk of premature delivery.

Key words:

Preterm infant, Full-term infant；Early language, Sleep, Cognitive development