Abstract: Every year, one in 10 children are born preterm (PTB; < 37 weeks gestation) in the United States. Compared to term born (TB) children (≥ 39 weeks gestation), PTB children have an increased risk for developing severe neonatal morbidities (e.g., intraventricular hemorrhage), which are often related to adverse neurodevelopmental delays. The current models leveraging biological risk factors in predicting variability in preterm-born children’s neurocognitive development have been met with limited success, as recent studies demonstrate that PTB children without severe neonatal morbidities also fall behind. This suggests the need for a novel set of predictors. Studies on TB children highlight the role of environmental factors (e.g., parent-child interactions) for children’s cognitive development – specifically, language development. Here, our objective is to determine whether the primacy of these biological models maintain their predictive power when compared against environmental experiences. As part of this study, we administered three questionnaires to PTB and TB parents when children were 3-5 years-old – one assessing the frequency of parent-child formal (e.g., parents teaching children the meaning of words) and informal (e.g., exposure to storybooks) language activities, one assessing parental knowledge of children’s language development, and one assessing vocabulary acquisition. Children’s verbal comprehension was assessed by the Wechsler Preschool & Primary Scale of Intelligence Verbal Comprehension Index. Multiple linear regressions revealed that formal and informal activities predicted language performance for children of all gestational ages, over and above neonatal morbidities and broad demographic factors. In addition, informal activities mediate the relations between parental knowledge and vocabulary. Overall, our results suggest that parent-child activities may act as a promotive factor in children’s language development and should be considered in addition to biological risk factors. Examining the interactive roles of biological and environmental factors will help deepen our mechanistic understanding of the variability in PTB children’s language performance.