Development Of Language Comprehension Research Articles

Receptive language and receptive-expressive discrepancy in minimally verbal autistic children and adolescents.

Among the approximately one-third of autistic individuals who experience considerable challenges in acquiring spoken language and are minimally verbal (MV), relatively little is known about the range of their receptive language abilities. This study included 1579 MV autistic children and adolescents between 5 and 18 years of age drawn from the National Database for Autism Research and the SFARI Base data repository. MV autistic children and adolescents demonstrated significantly lower receptive language compared to the norms on standardized language assessment and parent report measures. Moreover, their receptive language gap widened with age. Overall, our sample demonstrated significantly better receptive than expressive language. However, at the individual level, only about 25% of MV autistic children and adolescents demonstrated significantly better receptive language relative to their minimal expressive levels. Social skills explained a significant proportion of the variance in parent-reported receptive language skills, while motor skills were the most significant predictor of greater receptive-expressive discrepancy. Findings from this study revealed the heterogeneous language profiles in MV autistic children and adolescents, underscoring the importance of individualizing interventions to match their different communication strengths and needs and integrating multiple interconnected areas to optimize their overall development of language comprehension, socialization, and general motor skills.

Neurobehavioural and cognitive effects of prenatal exposure to organochlorine compounds in three year old children

BackgroundWe report data of a Belgian observational prospective cohort study regarding cognitive and behavioural development until the age of 36 months in relation to internal exposure to organochlorine pollutants [sum of polychlorinated biphenyls (sum PCB), dioxin-like activity, PCB118, PCB170, hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and p,p’-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE)] measured in cord blood.MethodsParticipants were recruited as part of an Flemish Environmental Health Survey (2002–2006). Two hundred and six mother-child pairs were recruited. Hundred twenty five toddlers [Reynell Taal Ontwikkelings Schalen (language development, RTOS), Snijders-Oomen Niet-verbale intelligentietest (non-verbal intelligence, SON), Bayley Scales, milestones, Infant Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ), gender specific play behaviour, Neurobehavioral Evaluation System (NES)-attentional task] and their mothers [Home Observation Measurement of the Environment (HOME), Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), general questionnaires] were tested. Statistical analysis was performed with the SPSS program. Much attention was paid to confounding factors.ResultsIn the first years of development, higher organochlorine pollutants were associated with less active children (delayed crawling: sum PCB*HCB (p < 0.05), sumPCB*DDE (p < 0.1); delayed first steps alone: sum PCB (p < 0.5), PCB118 (p < 0.01), PCB170 (p < 0.01), HCB (p < 0.01); less switching between toys: sum PCB (p < 0.01); less switching between toys in boys: PCB118 (p < 0.01), sum PCB(p < 0.01)). At 12 months children with higher dioxin-like activity tended to show less fear responses(p < 0.1) (IBQ 12 months). At 36 months, a slower development of language comprehension (RTOS) was related to all organochlorine exposure parameters(p < 0.1 or p < 0.05) except DDE. Lower nonverbal IQ scores (SON) were related to PCB118 in boys only(p < 0.05 or p < 0.01). Less masculine and more non-gender specific play behaviour was associated with sum PCB in boys and girls at 36 months(p < 0.1). Moreover, PCB118 (p < 0.05), PCB170 (p < 0.1), HCB(p < 0.05) and DDE(p < 0.05) were associated with diminished masculine play behaviour in boys.ConclusionOur data confirm the observations that neurobehavioral development of young children is adversely influenced by environmental concentrations of PCBs, especially in boys. In this context, observation of play behaviour seems to be a reliable, easy to perform and sensitive test to detect neurotoxic effects of chemicals like PCB’s and dioxin-like compounds in very young children. On the basis of our results, we hypothesize that an underarrousal pattern may play a role in the spectrum of effects measured in toddlers prenatally exposed to PCBs and dioxin-like compounds.

Preschool predictors of later reading comprehension ability: a systematic review

Preschool predictors of later reading comprehension ability: a systematic review

Communication in the second and third year of life: Relationships between nonverbal social skills and language

We aimed to investigate developmental continuities between a range of early social and communicative abilities (including gestural communication) and language acquisition in children aged between 11 and 41 months. Initiation of joint attention and imitation were strongly correlated to language comprehension and production. Moreover, the analysis of different communicative gestures revealed significant relationships between language development and the production of symbolic gestures, declarative pointing (declarative informative pointing in particular), and head nodding. Other gestures such as imperative pointing, showing, and head shaking were not found to correlate with language level. Our results also suggest that distinct processes are involved in the development of language comprehension and production, and highlight the importance of considering various characteristics of children’s early communicative skills.

Deictic gesturing in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)? Some possible cases.

Referential pointing is important in the development of language comprehension in the child and is often considered a uniquely human capacity. Nonhuman great apes do point in captivity, usually for a human audience, but this has been interpreted as an interaction pattern learned from human caretakers, not indicative of natural deictic ability. In contrast, spontaneous pointing for other apes is almost unknown among wild ape populations, supporting doubts as to whether apes naturally have any capacity to point referentially. Here the authors describe and illustrate 4 cases of gestures by juvenile chimpanzees in the Sonso chimpanzee community in Budongo, Uganda, that, at some level, may appear to be deictic and referential. The authors discuss the possible reasons why chimpanzees, if they possess a capacity for referential pointing, do not use it more frequently.

Language comprehension in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders without intellectual disability: Use of the Reynell Developmental Language Scales

This study aimed to (a) assess language comprehension in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) without intellectual disability, (b) assess differences between ASD diagnostic subgroups, and (c) analyze the relationship between language comprehension and performance and verbal IQ, respectively. The 94 participants (83 boys, 11 girls; 4:0–6:8years) were a subgroup of a large cohort of 208 Swedish preschool children with ASD that had been followed longitudinally over 2years. The Comprehension Scale of the Reynell Developmental Language Scales III (RDLS) was used at follow-up to assess language comprehension. Results revealed a delay in the development of language comprehension as well as high variability within the group as a whole. The Asperger syndrome and the Autistic feature groups performed within the normal range whereas the PDD-NOS and the Autistic disorder groups performed at the lower boundary of the normal range. However, importantly, 38% or more of the children showed results in the impaired range (i.e., <10th percentile) regardless of ASD type. Explained variance in language comprehension scores were 10% for non-verbal and 41% for verbal IQ. Many children with ASD without intellectual disability may have difficulties comprehending instructions in the classroom and in other everyday situations. The results highlight the need for detailed linguistic assessment of children with ASD.

Impact of Gender, Maternal Education, and Birth Order on the Development of Language Comprehension

To investigate the impact of child gender, maternal education, and birth order on language comprehension (LC) status at 18 and 36 months of age and on the change in LC between these time points. Gender interactions and interactions between maternal education and birth order are also examined. This study is based on data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study conducted by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Maternal report data on education, birth order, and child language in a sample of 44,921 children were used in linear regression analyses. At 18 and 36 months of age, first-born girls of mothers with high educational attainment had the highest level of LC. Between 18 and 36 months of age, first-born boys of mothers with high educational attainment had the highest increase in LC. Having a highly educated mother contributed more to the increase in LC in boys than in girls. The boys whose mothers had the highest education level had lower scores than the girls whose mothers had the lowest educational level, at both ages. Although significant, the considerable effect of high maternal education was not substantially dependent on birth-order status. Boys develop LC at a faster rate than girls between 18 and 36 months, but girls still remain superior in their level of LC at 36 months of age. Being firstborn or having a highly educated mother does not compensate for this lag.

Prelinguistic predictors of language development in children with autism spectrum disorders over four–five years

This study examined relationships between prelinguistic variables from the MacArthur-Bates CDI and the development of language comprehension and production in children with autism. Forty-four children were assessed at baseline and 6, 12, 24, 33 and 53 months later. Growth Curve Modeling was used to examine the extent to which three composite CDI variables and three CDI item groupings predicted language development over 4-5 years. When examined individually, prespeech and early gestures were significant predictors of change for both comprehension and production, but late gestures were not. In addition, initiating joint attention and games and routines predicted comprehension and production over 4-5 years, and conventional gestures also predicted production. When all factors were considered simultaneously, children's ability to participate in games and routines was the only significant predictor of language production over time. The results are discussed with regard to their implications for understanding the complex factors that affect developmental outcomes.

The development of comprehension in early childhood

Abstract This paper reports the early stages of a longitudinal study of one child’s development of language comprehension, focussing on the period 9-14 months. The nature of the comprehension process is discussed as are the methodological problems involved in investigating this process in pre-speech children. The analysis of data explores the development of early word meanings, and relational meanings. It is seen that language comprehension far outstrips production during this period. Although the child can express only a very limited range of meanings, he can understand and respond to a wide range of meanings of increasing complexity, including object and action terms, and relationships between them. It is suggested that the rapid growth of comprehension during this period grows out of contextualized interactional routines shared between child and caretaker.

Language comprehension in the moderately retarded children.

The Carrow Auditory Test of Language Comprehension was administered to retarded trainable pupils attending public school special education classes (a) to evaluate the appropriateness of the Carrow test for use with trainable retarded children and (b) to compare the development of linguistic comprehension of children with normal IQ's with that of trainable retarded children. The results suggest that the Carrow test can provide useful information concerning the language comprehension development of trainable retarded children. Results further demonstrate systematic language growth in children with IQ's as low as 20 and 30. These children acquired mastery of vocabulary items and aspects of morphology and syntax. When matched on mental age, the retarded children's use of lexical items did not differ from nonretarded children's to a great extent; however, retarded children's use of grammatical categories was inferior to that of nonretarded children.