The repetition of language-specific non-words: A weak clinical marker for language-related disorders in German-speaking monolingual and multilingual children

Celebrating young Indigenous Australian children's speech and language competence

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SUMMARY Studies in the area of developmental psychology — especially those carried out in the past thirty years — show that preschool quality, both at the structural and process levels, in combination with the quality of the family environment influences various areas of children's development and learning. The goal of this study is to determine the effect of preschool quality, maternal and paternal educational level, and the age of the child when starting preschool on various areas of children's language competence (understanding language, verbal expression, and metalanguage). Our sample included 5-year-old children attending preschool — some for approximately four years, others for two. We also took into account the level of maternal and paternal education, as well as the quality of the preschool class the child was attending, as an independent variable. The results indicate that maternal education is the strongest predictor of children's language competence measured among 5 year olds, regardless of the child's age upon entry into preschool. It was also determined that early entry into a high quality preschool is a factor that lessens the effect of parental education on children's language development, and has a positive effect on the language development of children whose parents have a low level of education and express a lower level of language competence.

To examine the association between maternal use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) in pregnancy and language competence in their children at age three taking into account maternal symptoms of anxiety and depression. Population-based prospective pregnancy cohort study. The Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study; recruited pregnant women from 1999 through 2008. 45,266 women with 51,748 singleton pregnancies. The association between short- or long-term use of SSRI during pregnancy and language competence in the child was investigated using multinomial logistic regression with three outcome categories: long, complicated sentences, fairly complete sentences and language delay. Children's language competence at age three measured by maternal report on a validated language grammar scale. Women reported use of SSRI in 386 (0.7%) pregnancies. Of these, 161 (42%) reported long-term use. Compared with children whose mothers took no SSRI, using the best language category as the reference, adjusted relative risk ratios (RRR) of having fairly complete sentences were 1.21 (95% CI 0.85-1.72) and 2.28 (1.54-3.38) for short- and long-term SSRI use, respectively. The adjusted RRRs of language delay were 0.86 (0.42-1.76) and 2.30 (1.21-4.37). Symptoms of anxiety and depression in pregnancy were independently related to language delay, adjusted RRR 1.25 (1.03-1.50) and 1.83 (1.40-2.40) for short- and long-term symptoms, respectively. Prolonged use of SSRI during pregnancy was associated with lower language competence in children by age three independently of depression. Having symptoms of depression throughout pregnancy had an independent effect.

Parental socio-economic status (SES) is often found to be associated with children's language competence in the first decade of life. To examine the effect of SES on children's vocabulary development, as well as potential compensatory effects of schooling and learning-related activities, we examined the joint and unique effects of parental education, occupational status, and learning environment at home on children's receptive vocabulary competence and growth in early childhood. We used latent growth curve models to assess pre-school receptive vocabulary and growth across primary school. Analyses were based on data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), a large-scale longitudinal study assessing vocabulary competence and family background from Kindergarten to the 3rd grade of elementary school. To examine the moderating effects of parental education, occupational status, and learning environment at home, we used local structural equation modeling. Results revealed a moderate to strong positive association between parental education and children's receptive vocabulary competence, which fully explained the effect of occupational status on this language skill. With the exception of the activity of reading aloud, we found no effect of learning environment at home. Initially lower performing children showed steeper growth trajectories across school, but rank-orders were relatively stable across time. In summary, the results suggest large initial differences in receptive vocabulary between children from different educational backgrounds, which are reduced, but not fully overcome across elementary school.

Associations Between Key Language-Related Measures in Typically Developing School-Age Children

This article reports a latent variable study exploring the specific links among executive processes of working memory, phonological short-term memory, phonological awareness, and proficiency in first (L1), second (L2), and third (L3) languages in 8- to 9-year-olds experiencing multilingual education. Children completed multiple L1-measures of complex span, verbal short-term storage, and phonological awareness, and tests of proficiency in a range of linguistic domains (vocabulary, grammar, and literacy) in Luxembourgish (L1), German (familiar L2), and French (unfamiliar L3). Results indicate that executive processing abilities, phonological short-term memory, and phonological awareness operate as distinct but related constructs that manifest differential associations with native and second language proficiency in multilingual children: Phonological short-term memory was uniquely linked to vocabulary in L1 and the structurally similar L2; executive processes were related to grammar across languages, reading comprehension, and spelling; and phonological awareness made specific contributions to word decoding, spelling, and language proficiency in the structurally dissimilar L3. Phonological processing abilities appear to be critical for acquiring the sound structure of a new language, whereas executive processes share more general links with higher order linguistic abilities in second language learners.

This study evaluates sources of individual variation in child pretense play as an expression of emerging mental representation. Family sociodemographic characteristics, maternal personological characteristics, and maternal affective and cognitive play behaviors, as well as children's gender, language competence, and play, were examined simultaneously. Naturalistic child solitary play and child collaborative play with mother were videorecorded in 141 20-month-olds. Child solitary play, child-initiated and mother-initiated collaborative play with mother, and maternal demonstrations and solicitations of play were then coded into nonsymbolic and symbolic acts. Zero-order relations obtained between child play and, respectively, child gender and language, family SES, and maternal verbal intelligence, personality, physical affection, and play demonstrations and solicitations. Structural equation modeling supported the following unique predictive relations: Child language and mothers' symbolic play positively influenced child collaborative play, and child gender and mothers' verbal intelligence predicted child solitary play. Child gender and mothers' verbal intelligence and physical affection influenced mothers' play and so influenced child collaborative play indirectly. The cognitive advantages of child play and maternal influences on child play are placed in an adaptive parenting framework.

Background: Hearing is one of the important senses for human that functions as a communication tool and education. Lack of hearing ability in children may hinder development and lead to problem in language and speaking ability. In turn it may affect academic achievement. Hearing disorder therefore needs to be detected early. This study aimed to determine the relationship between child nurturing pattern, family support, and language competence in children aged 5-6 years with auditory disorder. Subjects and Method: This was an analytic and observational study with cross sectional design. It was carried out at “Jala Puspa” Children Observation Garden (Taman Observasi Anak “Jala Puspa”) Dr. Ramelan Navy Hospital, Surabaya, East Java. A total sample of 40 children aged 5-6 years with their parents were selected for this study by simple random sampling. The dependent variable was language competence. The independent variables were child nurturing pattern and family support. The data were collected by a set of questionnaire, and were analyzed by logistic regression. Results: There were positive relationship between nurturing pattern (OR= 10.05; 95% CI= 1.85-54.73; p= 0.008), family support (OR= 6.76; 95% CI= 1.36-33.51; p= 0.019), and language competence. Conclusion: Nurturing pattern and family support have positive relationship with language competence. Keywords: child nurturing pattern, family support, language competence, auditory disorder Correspondence: Dewi Tirtawati. School of Health Polytechnics, Surakarta. Email: tirta.dewi@yahoo.co.id Journal of Maternal and Child Health (2016), 1(3): 188-194 https://doi.org/10.26911/thejmch.2016.01.03.06

BRADLEY, ROBERT H., and CALDWELL, BETTYE M. The Relation of Home Environment, Cognitive Competence, and IQ among Males and Females. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1980, 51, 11401148. The home environments of 72 children were assessed when they were 6 and 12 months old. Children's performance on the Bayley was assessed at age 1 and their Binet performance at age 3. Some significant correlations were obtained between Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) Inventory scores and 2 clusters of items from the Bayley: goal directedness and language use. Substantial correlations were observed between HOME scores and Binet scores for both boys and girls-albeit there were some sex differences. A significant residual correlation was obtained between 12-month HOME scores and IQ with 6month HOME scores partialled out; however, no significant residual remained when 12-month HOME scores were partialled out from the relation between 6-month HOME scores and IQ. Regression analyses revealed that IQ in boys was most efficiently predicted using 12-month scores on Play Materials, 6-month scores on Play Materials, and the child's language competence at age 1. For girls, the most efficient model included 12-month scores on Play Materials and Maternal Responsivity.

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the differential influences of maternal and paternal factors on Chinese children's English as a foreign language development. It took into account both behavioral (i.e. parental home literacy practices, HLP; and children's vocabulary knowledge) and emotional (i.e. parental and children's foreign language reading anxiety, FLRA) aspects of home literacy environment and children's language outcomes. Forty-eight Chinese first graders were tested individually on English vocabulary knowledge. Subsequently, both parents of participating children completed a questionnaire rating their HLP on English as a foreign language, their FLRA and their child's FLRA. Results from hierarchical regression analysis showed that paternal HLP predicted children's English vocabulary knowledge and paternal FLRA predicted children's FLRA, after controlling for children's age, family income and parental education level. However, when the effects of maternal factors were accounted for, these paternal factors did not uniquely contribute to children's English vocabulary knowledge or FLRA. In contrast, maternal HLP and FLRA explained unique variance in both children's English vocabulary knowledge and FLRA, even after paternal factors were accounted for. These results have provided a more comprehensive picture of how home literacy environment contributes to children's foreign language development, by indicating maternal and paternal contributions both behaviorally and emotionally.

Teachers and clinicians may struggle to provide early identification to support multilingual children's language development. Dynamic assessments are a promising approach to identify and support children's language development. We developed and studied a novel word learning task that is dynamic and language neutral. It makes use of multilingual children's abilities to apply language transfer, fast mapping and socially embedded language to the learning of new words. A total of 26 children attending kindergarten in French participated in this study. Within this group, 13 different home languages were spoken. Children took part in a dynamic assessment task of their word learning that consisted of a test-teach-retest task. Children's scores on this task were compared with their language abilities reported by their parents, amount of language exposure and scores on standardized tests of vocabulary. All tasks were delivered in French. Children had higher accuracy for known words as compared with new words in the task, which may suggest transfer of knowledge from their first language. They also showed increased accuracy in identifying and naming the new words across the three trials, suggesting fast mapping of these new vocabulary items. Finally, the scores on the dynamic task correlated to children's vocabulary scores on the standardized tests, but not parent report of language development, or the amount of exposure to the language of school. This novel dynamic assessment task taps into the process of vocabulary learning, but is less influenced by prior language knowledge. Together, these findings provide insight into early word learning by young multilingual children and proposes a conceptual model for identifying strategies to support second language acquisition. What is already known on the subject Many barriers exist with regards to assessing the language abilities of multilingual children when a clinician aims to assess their language abilities in both languages. An alternative approach is to measure children's language processing abilities. What this paper adds to existing knowledge A novel dynamic and multilingual task was developed and implemented in this study. This task builds on children's word learning abilities that include cross-language transfer, fast-mapping, and socially imbedded learning. This multilingual task was found to tap into vocabulary learning but was not influenced by prior language knowledge. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Applying a task that focuses on language processing abilities is a promising strategy to capture language abilities in multilingual children. In addition, the dynamic nature of this tasks allows a clinician to identify scaffolding strategies that best support children's word learning.

A new screener predicts toddlers' language development from age 2-3: The QUILS:TOD.

Purpose The purpose of this study was (a) to examine the underlying components or factor structure of the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment (BESA; Peña, Gutiérrez-Clellen, Iglesias, Goldstein, & Bedore, 2014 ) sentence repetition task and (b) to examine the relationship between Spanish-English speaking children's sentence repetition and vocabulary performance. Method Participants were 291 Spanish-English speaking children in kindergarten and 1st grade. Item analyses were used to evaluate the underlying factor structure for each language version of the sentence repetition tasks of the BESA. The tasks were then examined in relation to a measure of English receptive vocabulary. Results Bifactor models, which include a single underlying general factor and multiple specific factors, provided the best overall model fit for both the Spanish and English versions of the task. There was no relation between children's overall Spanish sentence repetition performance and their English vocabulary. However, children's pronoun, noun phrase, and verb phrase item scores in Spanish significantly predicted their English vocabulary scores. For English sentence repetition, both children's overall performance and their specific performance on the noun phrase items were predictors of their English vocabulary scores. Follow-up analyses revealed that, for the purposes of clinical assessment, the BESA sentence repetition tasks can be considered essentially unidimensional, lending support to the current scoring structure of the test. Conclusions Study findings suggest that sentence repetition tasks can provide insight into Spanish-English speaking children's vocabulary skills in addition to their morphosyntactic skills when used on a broad research scale. From a clinical assessment perspective, results indicate that the sentence repetition task has strong internal validity and support to the use of this measure in clinical practice.

Maternal question use and child language outcomes: The moderating role of children's vocabulary skills and socioeconomic status