Preterm-born children spend the first weeks or months of their life in the NICU. During this critical development period, they are deprived of the sounds they would otherwise be hearing in utero. This invasive environment can have profound effects on auditory brain maturation and consequences for speech and language acquisition. The study found a positive correlation between the number of words heard during the first weeks of life and the language and cognitive scores. Therefore, they hypothesized that PT-born babies residing in the NICU would have higher cognitive and language scores if they were exposed more to adult talk.