BACKGROUND Preterm-born children are at increased risk for deficits in executive function (EF). EF is a set of cognitive processes including inhibition, attention, memory, and decision-making, among others. Bilingualism, operationalized as productive capacity in 2 languages (ie, English and Spanish), may enhance EF in children born preterm and in term-born children. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of bilingualism on executive functioning in bilingual and monolingual preterm and term-born children using a robust measure of bilingualism. METHODS This study examined the impact of bilingualism on EF in 17 monolingual or bilingual preterm-born children, aged 6 to 7. The preterm-born sample was also compared with a normed, term-born sample of 38 monolingual, typically developing 6- to 7-year-olds. RESULTS On the Creature Counting task of EF, bilingual preterm-born children performed with more accuracy and total switches than monolingual preterm-born children. There was no difference in accuracy between the term-born and entire preterm-born samples. The bilingual, preterm-born children performed more accurately than the term-born sample. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE AND RESEARCH This preliminarily suggests bilingualism confers an advantage to preterm-born children's EF. Further research is needed on bilingual advantage of preterm-born children.

中文翻译：

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早产儿执行功能的初步研究：双语优势。

背景技术早产儿执行功能（EF）缺陷的风险增加。EF 是一组认知过程，包括抑制、注意力、记忆和决策等。双语，具体化为两种语言（即英语和西班牙语）的生产能力，可以增强早产儿和足月儿的EF。目的本研究的目的是使用强有力的双语测量来检查双语对双语和单语早产儿和足月出生儿童执行功能的影响。方法 这项研究调查了 17 名 6 至 7 岁单语或双语早产儿中双语对 EF 的影响。早产儿样本还与 38 名单语（通常发育为 6 至 7 岁）的标准足月出生样本进行了比较。 7岁的孩子。结果 在 EF 的生物计数任务中，双语早产儿比单语早产儿表现得更准确，总转换率更高。足月出生样本和整个早产样本之间的准确性没有差异。双语早产儿的表现比足月出生的样本更准确。对实践和研究的影响 这初步表明双语为早产儿的 EF 带来了优势。需要进一步研究早产儿的双语优势。