Laterality in Prematurely-Born Children

The study examined the relationship between perinatal stress and decreased right handedness and decreased left cerebral dominance for speech with 215 children born prematurely, followed from birth, and tested at age 5. Results indicated that neither hand preference nor hand performance correlated with degree of perinatal stress and that eye preference was associated with perinatal stress though crossed eye dominance was not. The dichotic listening measure showed an overall right ear advantage (the usual speech dominant ear) suggesting an increased degree of cerebral dominance for speech. (DB)