Infant-Directed Speech to preterm infants: the influence of severe prematurity and maternal depressive symptoms.

Introduction Severe preterm birth represents a risk factor for maternal perinatal depression and the quality of early dyadic interactions in the first year postpartum (Agostini et al., 2014; Neri et al., 2015). However, only few studies explored the effect of preterm condition on interactive exchanges, including maternal verbal input (Herrera et al., 2004; Suttora & Salerni, 2011), and no one considered the role played by severity of prematurity. Aim The study aimed to explore the influence of prematurity and maternal depression on functional and morpho-syntactic features of maternal Infant-Directed Speech, comparing dyads of Extremely Low Birth Weight (ELBW; <1000 gr.), Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW; 1000-1500 gr) and Full-Term (FT) babies. Material and Methods Sixty mother-infant dyads (15 ELBW, 15 VLBW, 30 FT) were recruited and participated in a 5 min free interaction session at both 3 and 9 months postpartum. Lexical, syntactic, and functional features of maternal input during the interaction were analyzed using the CHILDES software. All mothers completed Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (Cox et al.,1987) to assess depressive symptoms. At 3 months, maternal IDS in high-risk condition (ELBW preterm condition and depression) was characterized by a lower frequency of affect-salient speech and a higher proportion of informationsalient speech and questions. At 9 months, IDS of depressed mothers was characterized by a lower verbosity and a higher frequency of attention-getter utterances. Conclusions Despite preliminary, these findings highlight that maternal IDS might be influenced by both the presence of depressive symptoms and severe prematurity. Moreover, IDS features seemed to change during the first year postpartum, suggesting the need to monitor the influence of severity of preterm birth and its interaction with postnatal depression on the features of maternal input directed to the infant.