Preterm birth is often associated with neurological, neurodevelopmental and visual impairment arising from the complex interplay of ocular, visual pathway, and cerebral vulnerability in the immature infant. Visual dysfunction in premature infants may reflect ocular, anterior visual pathways, retrogeniculate pathways and visual associative areas abnormalities, as seen in Cerebral Visual Impairment. This systematic review synthesized evidence on the association between pre-, peri-, i and postnatal factors on basic visual (visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, visual field) and oculomotor (fixation, smooth pursuit and saccades) functions in very and extremely preterm infants. MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library were searched for studies published between January 2010 and 6 June 2025. Twenty-five studies were included. Across the included studies, VA was the most frequently assessed outcome, whereas contrast sensitivity, visual field, visual fixation, and smooth pursuit were less extensively examined. Retinopathy of prematurity, neuroimaging abnormalities, lower gestational age, and lower birth weight were the most frequently investigated risk factors; associations with visual outcomes were reported for each factor, although the associations varied across studies. Evidence concerning systemic, metabolic, and prenatal factors was more limited and heterogeneous. This review highlights the multifactorial nature of visual dysfunction in very and extremely preterm infants, further emphasizing the complex relationship between preterm birth, visual outcomes, and neurological vulnerability.

Acquiring basic language skills is one of the key developmental milestones a child must reach in its early years. Failing to do so can be a sign of language disorders and can lead to problems in later life that can impede all other domains of child development, including socio-emotional development, cognitive development, and later academic achievement. Since parents play a crucial role in early language development, it is important to support them with best practices and provide them with evidence-informed knowledge on language development of their infant. In this scoping review, we narratively synthesized the current scientific literature on stimulating language development in the first 1000 days of life, including during pregnancy. Our synthesis of the current literature emphasizes that the first 1000 days are an extremely important period for language development and that stimulating language development should already start during pregnancy. Importantly, many factors that are central for language development are intervenable and therefore useful targets for public health policy and early prevention. This review can be used to provide professionals and policy makers with better evidence-informed tools and knowledge to support families. Increased parental knowledge may, in turn, improve language development of young children, and subsequently lead to less children starting school with language deficits at later ages and related problems later in life.