Maternal language barriers and preterm infants' general movements: Evidence from a multilingual population

Aim To assess whether immigrant mothers' language barriers are associated with the motor development of infants born preterm, assessed using the Prechtl General Movement Assessment. The assessment of these spontaneous movements allows the prediction of cerebral palsy and neurodevelopmental delay. Methods The study included 508 infants born at 22–36 weeks gestation. At a corrected age of three to five months, general movements were assessed according to Prechtl, and a subsample of 251 infants also underwent coding with the Motor Optimality Score – Revised. Language barriers were measured using continuous linguistic distance scores between mothers' first languages and German (range 0–102.40). Results Of all mothers, 53.94% had an immigrant background and 45.10% reported a first language other than German. Higher linguistic distance was associated with a lower likelihood of fidgety movements being present (OR = 0.99, p < .05), although this association did not remain significant after adjustment for confounders. In contrast, higher linguistic distance was negatively associated with the Motor Optimality Score – Revised, an association that remained significant after adjustment for confounders, in both the univariate (B = −0.02 [−0.03, −0.01], β = −0.20, p < .001) and fully adjusted model (β = −0.17, p < .01; adjusted for gestational age, infant sex, severe brain lesions and maternal education). Conclusions Language barriers in the form of linguistic distance between mothers' first languages and their host country's majority language are associated with the early motor development of infants born preterm. Future research needs to disentangle how language barriers, intersectional vulnerabilities, and potential assessment biases affect infant development and follow-up services.