Late Talkers Research Articles

Language and reading outcomes to age 9 in late-talking toddlers.

Language and reading outcomes at 6 to 9 years of age were examined in a sample of 34 children who were late talkers as toddlers. The late talkers, who all had normal nonverbal ability and age-adequate receptive language at intake, were compared to a group of 25 typically developing children matched at intake (24 to 31 months) on age, socioeconomic status, and nonverbal ability. Late talkers performed in the average range on most language tasks by age 5. However, they had significantly poorer scores on most language measures through age 9. The groups did not differ in reading skills at age 6 or 7, but the late talkers were slightly less skilled in reading at ages 8 and 9. Findings suggest that slow early language development reflects a predisposition for slower acquisition and lower asymptotic performance in a wide range of language-related skills into middle childhood.

Oral narrative skills of late talkers at ages 8 and 9

This study compared the oral narrative skills of 31 school-aged children diagnosed at 24 to 31 months with expressive language delay (late talkers) with those of 23 typically developing peers. Based upon an extensively studied picture-book task, Frog, Where are You?, narratives were elicited from all participants both at age 8 and age 9. At age 9, children were asked to tell the story again and to increase their references to evaluative information (characters' emotions, character speech, and causal explanations of events; “supported” telling condition). Groups were compared on Syntax, Story Grammar, Cohesion, and Evaluative Information factor scores derived from the narrative measures. Children with histories of early language delay obtained lower Syntax, Story Grammar, and Evaluative Information factor scores than typically developing peers for each of their three narrative productions. The late talkers scored in the average range at age 8 on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals–Revised (CELF-R), but their scores were significantly lower than those of the comparison peers. When the group differences on the Story Grammar factor were reanalyzed with the CELF-R score as a covariate, the late talkers demonstrated weaknesses in story grammar skills independent of the variance accounted for by their weaker general language skills. This suggests that the use of narrative structure may be a specific area of underachievement for late talkers, in addition to their continuing weakness in syntactic and lexical abilities, relative to typically developing peers from the same SES background.

Do children recover from specific language impairment?

Natural recovery from stuttering is well documented for preschool-age children. If natural recovery from developmental language disorders is equally possible, speech-language pathologists could develop predictive measures for language disorders to save treatment time and money and alleviate parental concern. This article reviews the research literature on recovery from developmental language disorders with particular attention to specific language impairment (SLI). Additional attention is directed to the research describing late talkers and the probability of their recovery. Results of the literature review indicate that recovery is unlikely and that, even with treatment, preschool children with identified language disorders are likely to present with reading and writing disorders during the school-age and adolescent years.

Children With a History of Expressive Vocabulary Delay

Outcomes of 21 children who were previously identified as late talkers were investigated at 5 years of age. The model of service delivery used for these children included a parent program for preventive intervention when the children were 2 years old, followed by focused direct intervention for children whose gains in speech and/or language skills continued to be slow. Their outcomes at 5 years of age were investigated using general language measures as well as higher level language tasks designed to stress the language system. Late talkers’ results were compared to those of a comparison group of children with histories of typical language development. Scores on standardized tests of language development indicated that the majority of late-talking children (i.e., 86%) had ‘caught up’ to their age-matched peers in expressive grammar and vocabulary. However, weaknesses remained in a number of higher level language areas, including a standardized test designed to measure facility with teacher-child discourse, a novel task that examined the child's use of pragmatic cues for anaphora resolution of ambiguous sentences, and narrative tasks. The clinical implications of these findings include close monitoring of these children as they reach school age and intervention in key areas of weakness for children who continue to demonstrate language difficulties as they mature.

Developmental Pathways of Children With and Without Familial Risk for Dyslexia During the First Years of Life

Comparisons of the developmental pathways of the first 5 years of life for children with (N = 107) and without (N = 93) familial risk for dyslexia observed in the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal study of Dyslexia are reviewed. The earliest differences between groups were found at the ages of a few days and at 6 months in brain event-related potential responses to speech sounds and in head-turn responses (at 6 months), conditioned to reflect categorical perception of speech stimuli. The development of vocalization and motor behavior, based on parental report of the time of reaching significant milestones, or the growth of vocabulary (using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories) failed to reveal differences before age 2. Similarly, no group differences were found in cognitive and language development assessed by the Bayley Scales of Infant Development and the Reynell Developmental Language Scales before age 2.5. The earliest language measure that showed lower scores among the at-risk group was maximum sentence length at age 2. Early gross motor development had higher correlation to later language skills among the at-risk group rather than the control children. The most consistent predictor of differential development between groups was the onset of talking. Children who were identified as late talkers at age 2 were still delayed at the age 3.5 in most features of language-related skills-but only if they belonged to the group at familial risk for dyslexia. Several phonological and naming measures known to correlate with reading from preschool age differentiated the groups consistently from age 3.5. Our findings imply that a marked proportion of children at familial risk for dyslexia follow atypical neurodevelopmental paths. The signs listed previously comprise a pool of candidates for early predictors and precursors of dyslexia, which await validation.

Language development and symbolic play in children with and without familial risk for dyslexia.

The purposes of this study were to investigate (a) whether children in families with a positive history of dyslexia were more likely to show delays in language development than children without family risk and (b) whether a delayed onset of expressive language (late talking) predicted later language development. We analyzed the language development of 200 children longitudinally at 14, 24, 30, and 42 months and assessed their symbolic play at 14 months. Half of the children (N = 106) were from families with a history of dyslexia (the Dyslexia Risk [DR] group), and other children served as age-matched controls. Parental reports and structured tests were used to assess children's receptive and expressive language and symbolic play. No differences emerged between the two groups in receptive language, symbolic play, or on the Bayley MDI. The groups, however, diverged in expressive language measures. The maximum sentence length at 2 years and object naming and inflectional morphology skills at 3.5 years were higher for the control group than for the DR group. Reynell receptive score at 2.5 years provided the greatest unique contribution to the prediction of the children's receptive and expressive language. Children's risk status did not contribute to receptive language, but provided a significant contribution to their expressive language at 3.5 years, even after the variance associated with parental education and children's previous language skills was controlled. Late talkers in the DR group differed from the other members of the DR group in both receptive and expressive language at 3.5 years, although in the control group children with a late-talking history performed at age-level expectations. The findings suggest that children with a familial risk for dyslexia and with a history of late talking are at higher risk for delays in language acquisition than children without the familial risk for dyslexia.

Conversational patterns in late talkers at age 3

Topic choice, topic synchrony, and utterance function during mother–child play sessions at age 3 were examined in 32 late talkers (identified at 24 to 31 months) and 21 comparison children, matched at intake on age, SES, and nonverbal ability. At age 3, late talkers had significantly lower MLUs and IPSyn scores than comparison children. Late talkers and comparison children did not differ in number of utterances, topic initiation, topic synchrony, use of commands, reactions to commands, or conversational fillers. However, late talkers asked significantly fewer questions, provided fewer answers to maternal questions, made fewer declarative statements, and were less likely to elaborate on their own topic than comparison children. Mothers of late talkers produced significantly more utterances and asked many more questions, but otherwise they did not differ from mothers of comparison children. In both groups, children and mothers were highly synchronous. When late talkers were divided into two groups (children with continuing delay vs. “late bloomers” who were within the normal range in MLU), the subgroups did not differ significantly from each other on any conversational measure.

SLI: What We Know and Why It Matters

SLI: What We Know and Why It Matters

Word frequencies in toddlers' lexicons.

Word frequencies in toddlers' lexicons were examined in two studies using the Language Development Survey (LDS), a vocabulary checklist completed by parents (Rescorla, 1989). In Study 1, a high degree of consistency in LDS word frequencies was found when six samples of 24-month-olds were compared (total N = 758). Word frequency correlations in the .90s were found between large, unselected samples of toddlers of roughly similar socioeconomic status (SES). Correlations were somewhat lower but still highly significant when groups varying widely in SES were compared. In Study 2, LDS word frequencies in a sample of 40 late talkers traced from age 2 to 3 were compared to those in a large community sample from Study 1. Both lexicon size and age of the late talker influenced the degree of consistency found with respect to the community sample. The most common words reported in the lexicons of a sample of 422 24-month-olds were consistent with those identified in diary studies as among the highest frequency words used by young children in their early vocabularies.

Late-talking toddlers: MLU and IPSyn outcomes at 3;0 and 4;0.

Expressive language outcomes measured by MLU and the Index of Productive Syntax (IPSyn) at ages 3;0 and 4;0 were investigated in 34 late talkers with normal receptive language identified between 2;0 to 2;7 and 16 typically developing comparison children matched on age, SES, and nonverbal ability. Late talkers made greater gains than comparison children between 3;0 and 4;0 in both MLU and IPSyn raw score. However, when age-standardized z-scores were analysed, the late talkers were about 2.5 standard deviations below comparison children on both measures at both ages. At 3;0, 41% of the late talkers had MLUs above the 10th percentile based on Scarborough's (1990) benchmark sample; by 4;0, 71% did so. Using the IPSyn, a more stringent measure, 34% scored above the 10th percentile at 3;0 and only 29% did so at 4;0. MLU was significantly correlated with the IPSyn at both ages for the late talkers, but only at 3;0 for the comparison children. A converging set of regression analyses indicated no group differences in the predictive relationship between MLU and IPSyn, suggesting that the late talkers were delayed on both measures but not deviant in their development.

Determination of a site-specific reference dose for methylmercury for fish-eating populations.

Determination of a site-specific reference dose for methylmercury for fish-eating populations.

Vocabulary growth in late talkers: lexical development from 2;0 to 3;0.

Vocabulary growth from 2;0 to 3;0 was studied in 28 late talkers using expressive vocabulary inventories reported bimonthly on the Language Development Survey (LDS). Group milestones were 18 words at 2;0, 89 words at 2;6, and 195 words at 3;0. A sub-group of 11 children (Group 1) showed a rapid vocabulary spurt between 2;2 and 2;8, reached the 150-180 word mark by 2;6, and attained the LDS ceiling of about 300 words by 2;10. In contrast, the 17 children in Group 2 still had a mean vocabulary of fewer than 30 words at 2;6, had less of a vocabulary spurt when they did start acquiring words, and attained the 150-180 vocabulary mark at 3;0. All 3;0 language outcome measures were significantly predicted by LDS vocabulary size from 2;2 to 2;4.

Do late-talking toddlers turn out to have reading difficulties a decade later?

Language and reading outcomes at age 13 were examined in a sample of 22 children who were late talkers as toddlers. The late talkers, all of whom had normal nonverbal ability and age-adequate receptive language at intake (24-to-31 months), were compared to a group of 14 typically developing children similar at intake on age, SES, and nonverbal ability. Late talkers had significantly poorer vocabulary, grammar, reading/spelling, and verbal memory skills at age 13, although as a group, they generally performed in the average range on most language and academic tasks. The findings suggest that slow early language development reflects a predisposition for slower acquisition and lower asymptotic performance in a wide range of language-related skills into adolescence.

The Relationship Between Maternal Language Measures and Language Development in Toddlers With Expressive Vocabulary Delays

This study examined the relationship between variation in maternal language and variation in language development in a group of 12 children with expressive vocabulary delays. Mothers and their children participated in a parent-mediated intervention that adhered to the interactive model of language intervention. This intervention model arises out of social interactionist accounts of language acquisition and maintains that maternal language input has facilitatory effects on child development. The purpose of this study was to examine two compatible explanations for the facilitatory effects of maternal linguistic input in this intervention model: the responsivity hypothesis and the structural hypothesis. The responsivity hypothesis maintains that linguistic input that is semantically contingent on the child’s vocal or verbal utterances, or responsive to the child’s focus, facilitates language learning. The structural hypothesis posits that structural features of maternal language input that are just one step above the child’s abilities promote language learning. The results of this study indicated robust relationships between maternal use of imitation and expansion at Time 1 and measures of child language at Time 2. These results provided support for the effects of responsive language input on the language abilities of this sample of late talkers. These results have implications for social interaction theory and confirm the import of responsive input as viable intervention techniques for young children with expressive vocabulary delays.

Communicative intent in late-talking toddlers

ABSTRACTThis research investigated communicative intent in 31 toddlers who were slow to talk and 32 normally developing toddlers matched on SES, age, and nonverbal cognitive ability. Communicative intent was studied during free play, both with the mother and with an unfamiliar examiner. Late talkers had lower rates of communication, initiation, and joint attention, but when total communicativeness was controlled for, they were just as likely to initiate, respond, and maintain joint attention as were their peers. As expected, the late talkers relied more on nonword vocalization, gestures, and gesture/oral combinations than their normally developing peers. Children in both groups initiated much more with the examiner (who was instructed to be passive) than with their mothers. Finally, regression analysis suggested that intake expressive language delay severity was the best predictor of age 3 MLU and IPSyn language outcome in the late talkers. However, after expressive delay severity was accounted for, late talkers who were more interested in initiating communication and sustaining joint attention had worse outcomes than late talkers whose communicative drive was weaker, suggesting that they had a more severe underlying language dysfunction.

A Clinical Synthesis of the "Late Talker" Literature: Implications for Service Delivery.

"Late talkers" are most often differentiated from their normally developing peers by their limited expressive lexicons. In the majority of the studies conducted on late talkers, these children are described as producing fewer than 50 words and/or producing limited word combinations by 24 months of age. The expressive language of some of the late talkers will eventually resemble their same-age peers; however, a substantial number of these children will continue to evidence difficulties with their expressive language acquisition. This article provides a review of the literature on late talkers in order to assist speech-language pathologists as they tackle those issues that are specific to service provision with this population of children.

Phonetic skills and vocabulary size in late talkers: Concurrent and predictive relationships

AbstractPhonetic skills and vocabulary size were investigated in 37 toddlers (24 to 31 months) identified with specific expressive language impairment and 20 comparison toddlers matched on age, SES, and nonverbal ability. The use of consonants was highly consistent across two contexts: 20 minutes of structured testing and 5 minutes of free play. The comparison children produced almost triple the number of consonant types and five times as many consonant tokens as the late talkers. However, the most frequently present consonants were similar across groups, indicating delayed rather than deviant phonetic development in the late talkers. The late talkers used a much higher proportion of their consonants in initial position than did the normally developing toddlers. Consonant types and tokens were significantly related to reported vocabulary size on Rescorla's (1989) Language Development Survey. No significant predictive relationship was found between either phonetic repertoire or vocabulary size at intake and age 3 language outcome. However, age 3 MLU and IPSyn scores were significantly predicted by age-normed severity of expressive delay at intake (Reynell Expressive z score), with more delayed children showing poorer outcomes.

Temperament in late talkers.

This study examines the temperamental characteristics of children who were identified at age two as being slow in expressive language development, and those of peers with normal language history. When the children were in first grade (approximately age six), parents and clinicians rated subjects' temperamental characteristics, using a standardized temperament assessment instrument. Subjects with a history of slow expressive language development were rated significantly lower on Approach/Withdrawal--indicating shyness, aloofness, or reduced outgoingness--than peers with normal language history. Approach/Withdrawal scores were significantly correlated with average sentence length in spontaneous speech, and this measure also predicted Approach/Withdrawal scores in regression analyses. The clinical and theoretical implications of these findings for early language delay are discussed.

Language and Symbolic Play in Toddlers

Language-play relations were examined in 110 18-month-old toddlers by observing their play actions in the Symbolic Play Test and assessing their language skills with the CDI parental report and the Reynell Developmental Language Scales. Significant associations between both language comprehension and production (vocabulary, use of suffixes, utterance length) and play were found when percentage of symbolic play was used as the measure of play competence. The total play score which included both functional-relational toy manipulation and symbolic play was not as strongly associated with the language measures. In both play measures relations were, however, higher between play and language comprehension than between play and language production. Out of the symbolic play categories other-directed pretence discriminated children’s play best. The relation between language and play was also supported by a subgroup analysis which showed that early talkers displayed significantly more symbolic play than late talkers. Children belonging to the latter group had a small productive vocabulary and they did not yet exhibit any sentence combinations or grammatical suffixes. The total play score correlated significantly with language comprehension among late talkers, whereas a significant connection was found between language comprehension and percentage of symbolic play among early talkers. Methodological issues concerning the assessment of toddlers’ play will be discussed.

Categorization and Its Developmental Relation to Early Language.

Three studies examine the developmental relation between early linguistic and cognitive achievements. Studies 1 and 2 attempt to replicate previous findings of a strong temporal link between the ages at there is a sharp rise in new nominal productions and the appearance of 2-category grouping using a longitudinal design. Studies 1 and 2 differ principally in whether the same stimuli were employed each time the children's categorization was tested or whether different stimuli were employed. Study 3 compares the categorization performance of children identified as late talkers to age-matched and language-matched controls cross-sectionally. Our findings consistently show that children's ability to classify objects in a spatial of temporal order is independent of advances in productive vocabulary growth. These results suggest that although children's developing knowledge of object categories may underlie developments in categorization and naming such developments depend on other abilities as well Studyin the past experiences of the child and the particular context in which the behavior is exhibited may be a more meaningful approach to understanding changes in categorization and ultimately its relation to language.