Language development of children born following intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) combined with assisted oocyte activation (AOA)

BackgroundThe effect of assisted reproduction technology (ART) on language development is still unclear. Moreover, different techniques are introduced at rapid pace and are not always accompanied by extensive follow-up programmes. AimsTo investigate the language development of 3-10-year-old children born following ART using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) combined with assisted oocyte activation (AOA), which is a highly specialized technique applied in cases with a history of fertilization failure following conventional ICSI. Secondly, a comparison is made between the language development of singletons and twins. Methods & ProceduresTwenty children, six boys and 14 girls, born following ICSI combined with AOA and older than 3 years were included in the study. The mean age of the children was 5;4 years (range = 3;1-10;4 years; SD = 1;8 years). Expressive and receptive language development were assessed using the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF-IV-NL) for children older than 5 years and the Reynell Developmental Language Scales (RTOS) for children younger than or equal to 5 years. Outcomes & ResultsThe mean total score for language ability (in percentiles) was 56.8 (SD = 33.6), which corresponds to normal language skills. Significantly higher scores were found for AOA singletons compared with twins. For the general language, none of the children scored within the clinical zone for language disability corresponding with a percentile lower than 5. Conclusion & ImplicationsThis study presents the first data concerning language outcome in 3-10-year-old children born following AOA. General language scores of the AOA children in this study are located within the normal ranges. The language development of singletons was significantly better compared with twins. Although the results are reassuring for language development, in future long-term follow-up studies in this population are necessary.