Dissertation defence (Pediatrics): MD Anette Aija
MD Anette Aija defends the dissertation in pediatrics titled “Parent-staff and parent-infant communication - implications on child development” at the University of Turku on 22 August 2025 at 13.00 (PUB 2, PUBLICUM, Assistentinkatu 7, 20500, Turku).
The audience can also participate in the defence through remote access: https://echo360.org.uk/section/b4edbd33-03fc-4392-b070-46d6abcbe516/public (copy the link to the browser).
Opponent: Professor Pierre Kuhn (University of Strasbourg)
Custos: Professor Liisa Leuhtonen (University of Turku)
Doctoral Dissertation at UTUPub: https://urn.fi/URN:978-952-02-0248-4
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Summary of the Doctoral Dissertation:
After a preterm birth, the optimal growth environment in utero is replaced by a completely different, often rather stressful environment in the neonatal intensive care unit. Invasive procedures, noise, bright light, and most importantly, separation from parents could potentially be harmful to the developing brain. Although advances in neonatal care have enhanced the survival of premature and critically ill infants, difficulties in cognitive and language abilities remain unchanged. The need to improve preterm infants’ neurodevelopmental outcomes has led to a focus on enhancing developmentally supportive care within the neonatal intensive care unit and actively involving parents in their infant’s care.
The first aim of this thesis was to evaluate how parents were integrated into the decision-making process during medical rounds. Secondly, we aimed to assess the impact of early parental speech exposure in the NICU environment on the preterm infants’ attention at seven months of corrected age, as well as language development at one and two years of corrected age.
This thesis has shown that the care culture in a neonatal unit plays an important role in involving the parents in infant care. This thesis showed that parental speech exposure in the NICU environment is beneficial to the infants’ social-cognitive development and supports their language development. Including parents in the decision-making process, promoting parent-infant communication, and exposure to the parents’ speech during neonatal care could improve the NICU environment and infant outcomes.
The audience can also participate in the defence through remote access: https://echo360.org.uk/section/b4edbd33-03fc-4392-b070-46d6abcbe516/public (copy the link to the browser).
Opponent: Professor Pierre Kuhn (University of Strasbourg)
Custos: Professor Liisa Leuhtonen (University of Turku)
Doctoral Dissertation at UTUPub: https://urn.fi/URN:978-952-02-0248-4
***
Summary of the Doctoral Dissertation:
After a preterm birth, the optimal growth environment in utero is replaced by a completely different, often rather stressful environment in the neonatal intensive care unit. Invasive procedures, noise, bright light, and most importantly, separation from parents could potentially be harmful to the developing brain. Although advances in neonatal care have enhanced the survival of premature and critically ill infants, difficulties in cognitive and language abilities remain unchanged. The need to improve preterm infants’ neurodevelopmental outcomes has led to a focus on enhancing developmentally supportive care within the neonatal intensive care unit and actively involving parents in their infant’s care.
The first aim of this thesis was to evaluate how parents were integrated into the decision-making process during medical rounds. Secondly, we aimed to assess the impact of early parental speech exposure in the NICU environment on the preterm infants’ attention at seven months of corrected age, as well as language development at one and two years of corrected age.
This thesis has shown that the care culture in a neonatal unit plays an important role in involving the parents in infant care. This thesis showed that parental speech exposure in the NICU environment is beneficial to the infants’ social-cognitive development and supports their language development. Including parents in the decision-making process, promoting parent-infant communication, and exposure to the parents’ speech during neonatal care could improve the NICU environment and infant outcomes.
Communications