Language Development In Children Research Articles

Dialoge und Sprachlehrstrategien: Alternative Ansätze zur Erklärung frühkindlicher Sprachentwicklung – Ergebnisse einer Interventionsstudie

ZusammenfassungDie Studie untersucht den Einfluss zweier pädagogischer Prozessqualitätsmerkmale – des Gebrauchs von Sprachlehrstrategien (Input-Strategien, Modellierungs- und Korrekturtechniken und Output-Strategien) und der dialogischen Qualität der Konversation – auf die Sprachentwicklung von Kindern im Alter von 3 bis 5 Jahren. Die Prozessqualität wird dabei sowohl als unabhängige Einflussgröße des kindlichen Sprachzuwachses wie auch als Übertragungsmechanismus für eine Qualifizierungsmaßnahme zur alltagsintegrierten Sprachbildung im Elementarbereich untersucht. Die Daten wurden in einem Prätest-Posttest-Follow-Up-(Intervention-Kontrollgruppen‑)Design erhoben. Die Sprachkompetenzen der Kinder wurden breitgefächert in den Bereichen des Wortschatzes, des Sprachverständnisses, der Grammatik sowie der auditiven Gedächtnisleistungen gemessen. Gruppenbezogene Maße der Prozessqualität wurden auf Basis von Videoaufnahmen der Fachkraft-Kind-Interaktionen ermittelt. Im Rahmen von Mehrebenen-Mediationsanalysen wird gezeigt, dass unterschiedliche Zustände der Dialogqualität zu Beginn der Erhebung Verbesserungen des morphologischen Regelwissens, Satzgedächtnisses und Satzverständnisses zum zweiten Messzeitpunkt und Zuwächse im Satzverständnis auch zum dritten Messzeitpunkt vorhersagen. Demgegenüber wirken sich Veränderungen der Dialogqualität im Interventionszeitraum positiv auf parallele Veränderungen im phonologischen Arbeitsgedächtnis sowie in der Gedächtnisspanne für Wortfolgen aus. Input-Strategien beeinflussen die Sprachentwicklung der Kinder in den Bereichen des expressiven Wortschatzes, des morphologischen Regelwissens, des Satzgedächtnisses sowie des Satzverständnisses. Die Wirkungen werden dabei durch Zuwächse in der Nutzungshäufigkeit der Input-Strategien im Interventionszeitraum hervorgebracht und treten in parallelen und/oder langfristigen Veränderungen der Sprachleistungen zutage. Während die Output-Strategien keinen Effekt auf die Sprachentwicklung haben, wirken sich die Modellierungs- und Korrekturtechniken auf viele Kompetenzbereiche, die durch den Einsatz der Input-Strategien gefördert werden, negativ aus. Die Befunde werden unter methodischen Gesichtspunkten diskutiert. Die Mediationsanalysen belegen insgesamt das Potenzial der Dialogqualität und Input-Strategien für die Übertragung von Fortbildungsinhalten alltagsintegrierter Sprachbildungsprogramme auf die kindliche Sprachentwicklung.

Neonatal Hypoglycemia and Neurocognitive Function at School Age: A Prospective Cohort Study

To determine the relationship between transient neonatal hypoglycemia in at-risk infants and neurocognitive function at 6-7years of corrected age. The pre-hPOD Study involved children born with at least 1 risk factor for neonatal hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia was defined as ≥1 consecutive blood glucose concentrations <47mg/dl (2.6mmol/L), severe as <36mg/dl (2.0mmol/L), mild as 36 to <47mg/dL (2.0 to <2.6mmol/L), brief as 1-2 episodes, and recurrent as ≥3 episodes. At 6-7years children were assessed for cognitive and motor function (NIH-Toolbox), learning, visual perception and behavior. The primary outcome was neurocognitive impairment, defined as >1 SD below the normative mean in ≥1 Toolbox tests. The 8 secondary outcomes covered children's cognitive, motor, language, emotional-behavioral, and visual perceptual development. Primary and secondary outcomes were compared between children who did and did not experience neonatal hypoglycemia, adjusting for potential confounding by gestation, birthweight, sex and receipt of prophylactic dextrose gel (pre-hPOD intervention). Secondary analysis included assessment by severity and frequency of hypoglycemia. Of 392 eligible children, 315 (80%) were assessed at school age (primary outcome, n=308); 47% experienced hypoglycemia. Neurocognitive impairment was similar between exposure groups (hypoglycemia 51% vs 50% no hypoglycemia; aRD -4%, 95% CI -15%, 7%). Children with severe or recurrent hypoglycemia had worse visual motion perception and increased risk of emotional-behavioral difficulty. Exposure to neonatal hypoglycemia was not associated with risk of neurocognitive impairment at school-age in at-risk infants, but severe and recurrent episodes may have adverse impacts. Hypoglycemia Prevention in Newborns with Oral Dextrose: the Dosage Trial (pre-hPOD Study): ACTRN12613000322730.

Teacher verbal interaction as support for children’s oral language development: contributions from an integrative systematic review

Originating from an ongoing doctoral research, this article aims to analyze, through a systematic review, studies that investigated teachers’ verbal interaction as support for the development of children’s oral language. The purpose was to understand how the literature describes and interprets the role of teachers in verbal interaction with children. An integrative systematic review methodology was used, with searches conducted in national and international electronic databases for publications between 2012 and 2022. Access to the databases took place from October 13, 2021, to August 16, 2022. The PRISMA group’s recommended flowchart was used for the systematization of the findings. The search strategies resulted in thirty-eight scientific productions dedicated to children’s oral language, of which twelve investigated verbal interaction as support for the development of oral language in children. We conclude that teachers’ verbal interaction is fundamental to developing children’s orality. It is recommended that these conclusions guide future research and pedagogical innovations.

Intonation words in initial intentional communication of Mandarin-speaking children.

Intonation words play a very important role in early childhood language development and serve as a crucial entry point for studying children's language acquisition. Utilizing a natural conversation corpus, this paper thoroughly examines the intentional communication scenes of five Mandarin-speaking children before the age of 1;05 (17 months). We found that children produced a limited yet high-frequency set of intonation words such as " [a], [æ], [ε], [ən], [ə], eng [əŋ], [o], and [i]." These intonation words do not express the children's emotional attitudes toward propositions or events; rather, they are utilized within the frameworks of imperative, declarative, and interrogative intents. The children employ non-verbal, multimodal means such as pointing, gesturing, and facial expressions to actively convey or receive commands, provide or receive information, and inquire or respond. The data suggests that the function of intonation words is essentially equivalent to holophrases, indicating the initial stage of syntactic acquisition, which is a milestone in early syntactic development. Based on the cross-linguistic universality of intonation word acquisition and its inherited relationship with pre-linguistic intentional vocalizations, this paper proposes that children's syntax is initiated by the prosodic features of intonation. The paper also contends that intonation words, as the initial form of human vocal language in individual development, naturally extend from early babbling, emotional vocalizations, or sound expressions for changing intentions. They do not originate from spontaneous gesturing, which seems to have no necessary evolutionary relationship with the body postures that chimpanzees use to change intentions, as suggested by existing research. Human vocal language and non-verbal multimodal means are two parallel and non-contradictory forms of communication, with no apparent evidence of the former inheriting from the latter.

Proposed framework and knowledge synthesis of services delivered by specialized professionals in childcare settings: A scoping review.

Services from specialized professionals in childcare settings contribute to support early childhood development. Little is known, however, about how services are delivered in this context. The aims of this scoping review were to propose a framework to describe services delivered by specialized professionals in childcare contexts and synthesize knowledge about those services. Documents published between 2000 and 2022 in APA PsychINFO, ERIC, CINAHL and MEDLINE were included. These documents described services delivered by a range of specialized professionals (e.g., speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists and early childhood special education teachers) in childcare contexts and whose aim was to support motor, cognitive, affective, language or social development of children. Deductive and inductive qualitative analyses and descriptive statistics were carried out. The review included 47 documents. The Description of Services delivered by specialized Professionals in Early Childhood (D-SPEC) Framework emerged from qualitative analyses. The D-SPEC Framework included 11 dimensions: three actors and their context, specialized professionals involved, children served, purpose of service, type of service, service duration and intensity, mode of service delivery, mode of access to services and funding. Most services delivered by specialized professionals in childcare were provided by a single professional and targeted language. Two documents described multitiered service delivery models with a continuum of services ranging from general support for all children to individualized interventions for children with specific needs. In-context services were preferred to pull-out services in most documents reviewed. The D-SPEC Framework may be a useful tool to assist researchers in documenting and comparing services delivered by specialized professionals. More importantly, this framework will facilitate the development of intersectoral and interdisciplinary services essential for supporting early childhood development. Multitiered service delivery models appeared to be a promising way to develop those services addressing the various needs encountered in childcare.

Urgensi Pengenalan Bahan Ajar Ramah Anak Dalam Pembelajaran Bahasa Indonesia Pada Anak Usia Dini

Indonesian is very important when we live in the era of globalization because it helps us become more confident to compete internationally. Teaching methods for the introduction of English provide benefits for teachers and students. This research aims to determine how teaching materials play a role in the introduction of Indonesian to young children. The subjects of this research were educators and children in class A 1 Indara, and qualitative methods were used to explain the sources of data collected through several stages. Early childhood children currently have access to English-based digital media. Therefore, there is a plan that must be implemented to optimize the Indonesian language development of young children. This research involved 15 children from class A1, 12 children from class A2, and one Indonesian language teacher. Raudlatul Ulum Malang The research method used was descriptive qualitative. Research at RA Raudlatul Ulum Malang Cirebon found that learning English was part of the teaching is learning then proocess provided encouragement to for students from an early in age at school. Data was collected through documentation, interviews and observation. English learning through singing, playing, asking questions and using classroom equipment. Children succeed in improving their Indonesian language skills in this way.

A Longitudinal Corpus Analysis of the Quantity, Syntactic, and Lexical Characteristics of Maternal and Paternal Parentese

ABSTRACT Research on parentese, the acoustically exaggerated, slower, and higher-pitched speech directed toward infants, has mostly focused on maternal contributions, although it has long been known that fathers also produce parentese. Given recent societal changes in family dynamics, it is necessary to revise these mother-centered models of language input. Using a longitudinal dataset of daylong recordings collected with the same group of USA-born English-speaking infants (N = 21) at 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months, we investigate the similarities and differences between maternal and paternal parentese quantity, as well syntactic and lexical characteristics of parentese. We find that mothers are producing quantitatively more parentese than fathers at all ages. We find that the syntactic aspects do not differ substantially between mothers and fathers, however lexical differences do emerge. Specifically, we see that mothers may use more question and mental state words than fathers. Furthermore, use of these types of words increase as the child develops. This research highlight the continued need to further study fathers in order to have a full understanding of child language development.

From infancy to eight: How early maternal mental health, emotion reminiscing, and language shape children's mental health.

To test the transmission of mental health difficulties from mother to child, we examined mediation through emotion reminiscing conversations and child language. Maternal depression symptoms were measured at 9 months post-partum, and child mental health outcomes were measured at age 8 years. Emotion reminiscing conversations between 1,234 mother-child pairs (624 boys, 610 girls) were recorded as part of a large, diverse, longitudinal cohort Growing Up in New Zealand. The 1,234 reminiscing conversations were transcribed and coded for maternal elaboration and emotion resolution quality (mother and child). The coded reminiscing variables did not mediate the pathway from maternal depression to child mental health outcomes; however, each maternal reminiscing variable together with child language skill serially mediated the relationship from maternal depression symptoms to child-reported anxiety and depression symptoms, and parent-reported child externalizing symptoms. Language as a skill and it's use as a tool for making shared meaning from past events are highlighted as possible mechanisms for the intergenerational transmission of mental health difficulties. These findings point to potential opportunities for early interventions, including prevention of and support for postnatal depression, family intervention in reminiscing training, and supporting child language development.

Abstract

Background:Language ability is indicator for child development and will affect delays or damage to other systems because children's language skills also involve cognitive, motoric, psychological, emotional, and environmental abilities. Right stimulation can improve children's language development. Language stimulation can be done by the mother. Objective: This study aims to determine the effect of maternal stimulation behavior on the language development of pre-school children. Methode: This research is a quantitative research with a cross sectional approach. The population in this study amounted to 50 people with sampling using total sampling technique. Data analysis was processed using chi-square. Results: The results showed the correlation between knowledge and children's language development (p = 0.002), attitude and language development (p = 0.003), behavior (p = 0.005). Conclusion: Based on this analysis, it was found that there is a correlation between mother's knowledge, attitudes and behavior with language development

Intérêt d’une intervention de soutien langagier basée sur la narration et menée par l’enseignante auprès d’enfants de grande section de maternelle avec difficultés langagières.

Context: Narrative intervention enhances narrative abilities by addressing macrostructural elements within storytelling tasks for instance and can be an effective way of supporting the language development of preschool-aged children. Moreover, language support in educational settings plays a preventive role in addressing potential difficulties in language skills due to a lack of linguistic stimulation. Objectives: This study assesses the implementation fidelity of a tier 2 intervention with a pre-school teacher, measures the effectiveness of this intervention with children with language difficulties, and determines whether these children can catch up the level of narrative skills of the rest of the class, following the intervention Methods: Children with language difficulties were selected by the master student based on an inclusion test determining their linguistic profile, which was administered to all pupils in the class. Narrative skills were assessed for the entire class in a pre-test, considering elements of macrostructure and microstructure elicited during narrative generation and retelling activities. A Rapid Automa-tized Naming (RAN) control task was also included to evaluate the specificity of the intervention. The teacher was trained by the master student for the intervention, according to profession-al development principles. Subsequently, the intervention, lasting 45 minutes once a week for 6 weeks, was delivered by the teacher to five children identified as having language difficulties, aged 5;5 to 5;10. The intervention aimed to improve the number of macrostructural elements in a retelling activity through the use of icons and sequential picture stories. Finally, the RAN task and narrative skills (retelling and narrative generation) of the entire class were reassessed in a post-test. Results: At the end of the intervention, macro- and microstructural improvements were observed in the story generation activity in the experimental group. Moreover, following the teacher's intervention, the experimental group did not differ anymore from the rest of the class in retelling (when considering the trained story) nor in story generation. However, data analysis revealed weaknesses in the implementation of the intervention, both in content and dosage. Conclusion: The results contribute to the existing research supporting the effectiveness of group narrative intervention. Furthermore, they suggest the possibility of replicating a tier 2 indirect narrative intervention conducted by the teacher, by enhancing the professional development framework.

Validity and Reliability Tests of Ahmad Dahlan Linguistic Test (ADLT)

Language development assessment tools for early childhood currently often refer to the Developmental Milestones Standards for Children (STPPA), based on core competencies and basics in the 2013 Early Childhood Education curriculum. These standards are used as references for development to ensure age-appropriate play activities for children. However, language development assessment tools for broader use still require further development to effectively identify children's language development. The aim of this study was to develop a language development assessment tool for early childhood, focusing on phonetics, semantics, and syntax according to Otto's theory (2015), to enable early detection of language delays in children. The researchers conducted three stages, including tool development, validation by experts, and testing on a limited sample. Although the tool was validated by five professors with Aiken's V scores &gt; 0.8 and an overall reliability of 0.739, the semantic aspect was found to be unreliable (Cronbach Alpha &lt; 0.7). Therefore, while the Early Language Detection Tool (ADLT) is considered valid and reliable, it still requires further adjustment to better suit the context of early childhood.

Evaluating structure and content of parent-implemented early logopaedic intervention models following the three stages of communicative development in children with cleft lip and/or palate: Systematic literature review with narrative synthesis.

The development of communication, speech and language follows three stages (development of the parent-child relationship, interactions and actual speech and language acquisition). Children born with cleft lip and/or palate are at increased risk of communicative problems while parents may be going through an emotionally difficult time. Early parent-implemented logopaedic intervention that supports both parents and child is important. Three systematic reviews have examined the effects of early speech and language interventions, but not their structure and content. To investigate which early parent-implemented logopaedic interventions already exist for children with cleft lip and/or palate, and to evaluate their structure, content and time of onset against the three stages of communicative development. Six databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, APA PsycInfo, Cinahl and Scopus) were searched between inception and 31 March 2023 to identify published articles that reported early parent-implemented logopaedic interventions in children with cleft lip and/or palate, aged 0 to 3 years, clearly describing the strategies used to train parents. Two authors independently assessed the eligibility of the studies. Quality assessment was conducted using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database quality assessment tool, Single-Case Experimental Design tool and the National Institutes of Health pre-post-study tools. The structure and content of the interventions were analysed taking into account the needs and difficulties of both the parents and the child according to the three stages of communicative development. The systematic literature search identified four studies that met the inclusion criteria. Three of them had a Level of Evidence III and one study had a Level of Evidence IV. Strategies appropriate for Stage 1 of communicative development (parent-child relationship) are well represented in only one study, but the psychosocial needs of parents are currently not included in these programmes. However, research shows that parental emotional difficulties can adversely impact a child's communicative development. Strategies appropriate for Stage 2 (promoting social interactions) are better represented. However, strategies appropriate for Stage 3 (acquiring correct speech and language patterns) are most represented in all intervention programmes. Three out of four intervention programmes focus on Stage 3 (actual speech and language stimulation). Stage 1 is underrepresented and the psychosocial needs of parents are currently not included in existing intervention programmes. Further research is needed in close collaboration with psychologists to construct a comprehensive, longitudinal, developmentally appropriate intervention programme that equally represents the three stages of communicative development and considers the psychosocial needs of parents. What is already known on the subject Children with cleft lip and/or palate are at increased risk of speech and language problems from birth. Parents of these children often have emotional problems following their child's diagnosis. The effectiveness of early intervention to facilitate the child's speech and language development has already been proven. Early intervention is recommended for both parents and child, but little is known about early parent-implemented logopaedic interventions that also provide psychosocial support for parents. What this paper adds to existing knowledge This review has shown that existing early parent-implemented logopaedic interventions for children with cleft lip and/or palate focus mainly on facilitating responsive interactions and actual speech and language development (Stages 2 and 3 of communicative development). However, Stage 1, where the parent-child relationship develops, is currently not included, even though this stage is a prerequisite of subsequent stages. If parents are struggling with emotional problems (following their child's diagnosis) this can negatively impact their mental health, the parent-child relationship, attachment and their child's development. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? A clinical implication of the findings in this review is that more attention should be paid to Stage 1 of communicative development in early parent-implemented logopaedic interventions. By working closely with the psychologist of the cleft (and craniofacial) team, any psychosocial needs of the parents can be included in the counselling. As a result, the parents and their child are seen and supported as a unit and the parent-child relationship can develop optimally.

Perkembangan Bahasa Pada Anak Sindrom Down : Tinjauan Pustaka Sistematis

Down syndrome is a common disorder. In Indonesia, cases of Down syndrome tend to increase every year. Down syndrome is a genetic disorder that causes children to have low cognitive and physical differences. One of the differences owned by down syndrome children is their language development. Therefore, this article was prepared to find out how language development in down syndrome children. This article was prepared using the systematic literature review (SLR) method, which contains how language development in children with Down syndrome, factors that affect language development in children with Down syndrome, and efforts that can be made to develop language skills in children with Down syndrome. This article explains that some Down syndrome children experience language delays, which are caused by genetic abnormalities and physical conditions such as a mouth cavity that is too narrow, a short palate, weak speech muscles and many more. To overcome language development in children with Down syndrome, several efforts can be made such as conducting speech and language therapy, and using the PECS method which has been proven effective in efforts to develop language in children with Down syndrome.

Pengaruh Model Cooperative Learning Terhadap Perkembangan Bahasa Anak Speech Delay Di PAUD Fathur Rahman

This research discusses the influence of cooperative learning models on the language development of children with speech delay. The aim of this study is to examine and demonstrate the effectiveness of the cooperative learning model in improving the speaking abilities of children with speech delay. This research utilizes a descriptive qualitative approach with qualitative questionnaire methods, participatory observation, and structured interviews. Subject determination in the research uses purposive sampling techniques. The research findings indicate that the cooperative learning model can be used as one of the models implemented by teachers to address children with speech delay in schools. The series of learning processes, consisting of three main types of activities arranged by teachers every day, provide opportunities for children with speech delay to socialize intensively with their peers at school, thereby stimulating every aspect of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor development in students effectively.

Prenatal Vitamin B12 and Children's Brain Development and Cognitive, Language and Motor Outcomes: A Scoping Review.

Adequate maternal nutrient intake of vitamin B12 is critical to fetal brain development and subsequent neurodevelopmental outcomes. We conducted a scoping review to map the current state of knowledge from human epidemiological studies on the associations between maternal vitamin B12 during pregnancy and children's brain, cognitive, language, and motor development to identify gaps in the literature and suggest directions for future research. PubMed and OVID MEDLINE were searched. Search terms were vitamin B12, prenatal or maternal, neurodevelopment or cognitive development or brain. Animal studies were excluded. In total, 148 publications were identified, of which 19 met our inclusion criteria: (1) maternal vitamin B12 assessed via a measure of status, dietary intake, supplementation, or deficiency; and (2) an outcome related to brain development or cognitive, language, or motor development in children less than 18 years of age was assessed. This scoping review suggests that evidence supporting a relationship between maternal vitamin B12 during pregnancy and children's neurodevelopmental outcomes is inconclusive. Further longitudinal research is needed to clarify the effects of maternal vitamin B12 supplementation, status, and intake on children's brain development and neurodevelopmental outcomes.

An interactive shared reading intervention designed for preverbal infants: A feasibility study exploring early language and cognitive development

Creating an environment suitable for language acquisition through shared reading significantly contributes to improving a child's language development and parent–child relationship. Reading in an interactive way, such as dialogic reading, is favorable. Nevertheless, dialogic reading is designed for children above the age of two and shared reading is recommended to start during the child's first year. The present study aimed to explore the feasibility of an interactive shared reading intervention, inspired by dialogic reading, where the reading techniques were designed to complement infants’ preverbal developmental level. The study further intended to explore its preliminary effect on infants’ cognitive and language development. Eleven parent–infant dyads participated, bi-monthly, in four in-depth intervention sessions where the shared reading techniques were modeled. Between sessions, parents and infants engaged in shared reading using these techniques. Post-intervention interviews served to reflect the feasibility of the intervention. Infant cognitive and language assessments were conducted pre- and post-intervention using BAYLEY-III and CSBS DP ITC. Favorable results regarding feasibility and infant language development were found, however, for cognitive development the results were non-significant. We discuss clinical considerations and the scope for conducting future studies.

Parental linguistic support in a home environment is associated with language development of preschool-aged children.

In today's increasingly digitalised society, there is a growing need for information on how parents can support their children's language development at home. We investigated the associations between three types of parental linguistic support and children's language skills in different domains. Between April 2019 and March 2020, 164 children aged between 2.5 and 4.1 years and their parents were recruited via daycare centres in Helsinki. Information on how frequently parents read, told free stories and sang to their children was collected. The children's lexical and grammatical skills and general language ability were assessed using validated instruments. More frequent reading, storytelling and singing were all separately associated with higher-level expressive lexical and general expressive language ability. More frequent reading and storytelling were also associated with higher-level phonological skills. Only reading was associated with receptive skills. The regression analyses revealed that reading had the highest explanatory value for lexical and general language ability after controlling for the effect of background factors. Furthermore, storytelling had the highest explanatory value for grammatical skills. The results highlight the benefits of parental reading. However, broad use of all parental linguistic activities is recommended to support the development of children's different language domains.

Background TV and infant-family interactions: Insights from home observations.

Background television has been found to negatively impact children's language development and self-regulatory skills, possibly due to decreased parent-child interactions. Most of the research on the relationship between background TV and caregiver-child interactions has been conducted in laboratory settings. In the current study, we conducted home observations and investigated whether infants engage in fewer interactions with family members in homes where background TV is more prevalent. We observed 32 infants at the ages of 8, 10, and 18months in their home environments, coding for dyadic interactions (e.g., parent talking to and/or engaging with the child), triadic interactions (e.g., parent and infant play with a toy together), and infants' individual activities. Our findings revealed that background TV was negatively associated with the time infants spent in triadic interactions, positively associated with time spent engaging in individual activities, and not significantly related to the time spent in dyadic interactions. Apart from the relationship between background TV and individual activity time at 8months, these associations remained significant even after accounting for families' socioeconomic status. These findings imply a correlation between background TV exposure and caregiver-infant-object interactions, warranting a longitudinal analysis with larger sample sizes.

Analysis of language and influencing factors of children with speech disorder in Beijing

Objective: To investigate the features and influencing factors of language in children with various types of speech disorders. Methods: A case-control study was carried out, 262 children with speech disorder had been diagnosed at the language-speech clinic of the Center of Children's Healthcare, Children's Hospital, Capital Institute of Pediatrics from January 2021 to November 2023, the children with speech sound disorder as the speech sound disorder group, the children with developmental stuttering as the stuttering group. There were 100 typically-developed children who underwent physical checkups at the Center of Healthcare during the same period as the healthy group. All children experienced a standardized evaluation of language with diagnostic receptive and expressive assessment of mandarin-comprehensive(DREAM-C) and questionnaire, One-way ANOVA and LSD test were conducted to compare the differences in overall language, receptive language, expressive language, semantics, and syntax scores among 3 groups of children. According to the results of DREAM-C, the children with speech disorder were divided into language normal group and language delay group. Chi-square test and multivariate Logistic regression were implemented to analyze the association between the linguistic development of children with speech disorder and potential influential factors. Results: There were 145 children in the speech sound disorder group, including 110 males and 35 females respectively, with an age of (5.9±1.0) years; 117 children in the stuttering group, including 91 males and 26 females, with an age of (5.8±1.0) years; 100 children in the healthy group, including 75 males and 25 females, with an age of (5.7±1.2) years. The variations in overall language, expressive language, and syntax scores among 3 groups of children were statistically significant (92±18 vs.96±11 vs. 98±11, 81±18 vs. 84±14 vs. 88±13, 87±16 vs. 89±11 vs. 91±10, F=5.46, 4.69, 3.68, all P<0.05). Pairwise comparison revealed that the speech sound disorder group had lower scores in overall language, expressive language, and syntactic compared to the healthy group, and the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.01) and the overall language score was lower than that of children with stuttering (P<0.05). In terms of overall language and expressive language, there was a statistically significant difference in the incidence of language delay among the three groups of children (15.9% (23/145) vs. 20.5% (24/117) vs. 7.0% (7/100), 46.2% (67/145) vs. 39.3% (46/117) vs. 26.0% (26/100); χ2=7.93, 10.28; both P<0.05). In terms of overall language, the stuttering group took up the highest proportion. In terms of expressive language, the speech sound disorder group accounted for the highest amount. The incidence of language delay in children with speech disorder was 44.3% (116/262). Non-parent-child reading, daily screen time ≥1 hour and screen exposure before 1.5 years of age are risk factors for the development of language in children with speech disorder (OR=1.87, 2.18, 2.01; 95%CI 1.07-3.27, 1.23-3.86, 1.17-3.45; all P<0.01). Negative family history are protective factors for the progress of language ability (OR=0.37, 95%CI 0.17-0.81, P<0.05). Conclusions: Children with speech disorder tend to have easy access to language delay, especially in expressive language and syntax. The occurrence of language delay in children with speech disorder is tightly connected with factors such as the family medical history, parent-child reading, screen time, etc. Attention should be paid to the development of language in children who suffer from speech disorder.

Heart-to-heart: infant heart rate at 3 months is linked to infant-directed speech, mother-infant interaction, and later language outcomes.

Previous studies underscore the importance of speech input, particularly infant-directed speech (IDS) during one-on-one (1:1) parent-infant interaction, for child language development. We hypothesize that infants' attention to speech input, specifically IDS, supports language acquisition. In infants, attention and orienting responses are associated with heart rate deceleration. We examined whether individual differences in infants' heart rate measured during 1:1 mother-infant interaction is related to speech input and later language development scores in a longitudinal study. Using a sample of 31 3-month-olds, we assessed infant heart rate during mother-infant face-to-face interaction in a laboratory setting. Multiple measures of speech input were gathered at 3 months of age during naturally occurring interactions at home using the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system. Language outcome measures were assessed in the same children at 30 months of age using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI). Two novel findings emerged. First, we found that higher maternal IDS in a 1:1 context at home, as well as more mother-infant conversational turns at home, are associated with a lower heart rate measured during mother-infant social interaction in the laboratory. Second, we found significant associations between infant heart rate during mother-infant interaction in the laboratory at 3 months and prospective language development (CDI scores) at 30 months of age. Considering the current results in conjunction with other converging theoretical and neuroscientific data, we argue that high IDS input in the context of 1:1 social interaction increases infants' attention to speech and that infants' attention to speech in early development fosters their prospective language growth.