Background: It is not clearly understood how the quality of early mother–child interaction influences language
development in very-low-birth-weight children (VLBW).
Aims: We aim to analyze associations between early language and the quality of mother–child interaction, and,
the predictive value of the features of early mother–child interaction on language development at 24 months
of corrected age in VLBWchildren.
Study design: A longitudinal prospective follow-up study design was used.
Methods: The participants were 28 VLBWchildren and 34 full-term controls. Language development was measured
using different methods at 6, 12 and at 24 months of age. The quality of mother–child interaction was
assessed using PC-ERA method at 6 and at 12 months of age.
Results: Associations between the features of early interaction and language development were different in the
groups of VLBW and full-term children. There were no significant correlations between the features of mother–
child interaction and language skillswhenmeasured at the same age in the VLBWgroup. Significant longitudinal
correlationswere detected in the VLBWgroup especially if the quality of early interactionswasmeasured at
six months and language skills at 2 years of age. However, when the predictive value of the features of early
interactions for later poor language performance was analyzed separately, the features of early interaction predicted
language skills in the VLBWgroup only weakly.
Conclusions: The biological factors may influence on the language developmentmore in the VLBWchildren than
in the full-term children. The results also underline the role of maternal and dyadic factors in early interactions.