A pilot study on early mother–infant communication during and after NICU admission

Premature children or infants with neonatal pathologies have a higher risk of developing communicative problems. This pilot study aimed to explore communicative behaviour between the mothers and the infants during the hospitalization in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and follow-up paediatric visit. The verbal interactions in the NICU were observed using an Observational Scale (N-EOV-INC). Observations at follow-up were carried out in 9 mothers and their high-risk children at infant's age around 9 and 11 months. The results show that the number of words produced by the mother during follow-up was associated both with the number of verbal interactions initiated by the mother and infant replies during NICU stay. The infant's verbal responses during neonatal admission were also related with the number of words uttered by the mother at follow-up. Our study is a first exploratory investigation on the communicative interaction between mothers and their high-risk children.