Predictors Of Language Development Research Articles

Early, typical, and late talkers: an exploratory study on predictors of language development in the first two years of life.

The consensus in scientific literature is that each child undergoes a unique linguistic development path, albeit with shared developmental stages. Some children excel or lag behind their peers in language skills. Consequently, a key challenge in language acquisition research is pinpointing factors influencing individual differences in language development. We observed children longitudinally from 3 to 24 months of life to explore early predictors of vocabulary size. Based on the productive vocabulary size of children at 24 months, 30 children met our sample selection criteria: 10 late talkers and 10 early talkers, and we compared them with 10 typical talkers. We evaluated interactive behaviors at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months, considering vocal production, gaze at mother's face, and gestural production during mother-child interactions, and we considered mothers' report of children's actions and gestures and receptive-vocabulary size at 15 and 18 months. Results indicated early precursors of language outcome at 24 months identifiable as early as 3 months in vocal productions, 6 months for gaze at mother's face and 12 months for gestural productions. Our research highlights both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, identifying the early indicators of belonging to the group of late or early talkers underscores the significant role of this developmental period for future studies. On a practical note, our findings emphasize the crucial need for early investigations to identify predictors of vocabulary development before the typical age at which lexical delay is identified.

Infant mismatch responses to speech-sound changes predict language development in preschoolers at risk for dyslexia

ObjectiveWe investigated how infant mismatch responses (MMRs), which have the potential for providing information on auditory discrimination abilities, could predict subsequent development of pre-reading skills and the risk for familial dyslexia. MethodsWe recorded MMRs to vowel, duration, and frequency deviants in pseudo-words at birth and 28 months in a sample over-represented by infants with dyslexia risk. We examined MMRs’ associations with pre-reading skills at 28 months and 4–5 years and compared the results in subgroups with vs. without dyslexia risk. ResultsLarger positive MMR (P-MMR) at birth was found to be associated with better serial naming. In addition, increased mismatch negativity (MMN) and late discriminative negativity (LDN), and decreased P-MMR at 28 months overall, were shown to be related to better pre-reading skills. The associations were influenced by dyslexia risk, which was also linked to poor pre-reading skills. ConclusionsInfant MMRs, providing information about the maturity of the auditory system, are associated with the development of pre-reading skills. Speech-processing deficits may contribute to deficits in language acquisition observed in dyslexia. SignificanceInfant MMRs could work as predictive markers of atypical linguistic development during early childhood. Results may help in planning preventive and rehabilitation interventions in children at risk of learning impairments.

The Role of Gesture in Language Development for Neurotypical Children and Children With or at Increased Likelihood of Autism.

For young children, gesture is found to precede and predict language development. However, we are still building a knowledge base about the specific nature of the relationship between gesture and speech. While much of the research on this topic has been conducted with neurotypical children, there is a growing body of work with children who have or are at increased likelihood of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Here, we summarize the literature on relations between gesture and speech, including the role of child gesture production as well as that of gesture exposure (caregiver gesture). We include literature on both neurotypical children and children with or at likelihood of ASD, highlight the similarities and differences across populations, and offer implications for research as well as early identification and intervention.

A longitudinal study of the relationship between children's exposure to screen media and vocabulary development.

This study addresses the scarcity of longitudinal research on the influence of screen media on children. It aims to explore the longitudinal relationship between children's vocabulary development and their exposure to screen media. The study, initiated in 2017, included 72 children (37 boys) in Östergötland, Sweden, at three key developmental stages: preverbal (9.7 months), early verbal (25.5 months) and preliterate (5.4 years). Parents completed online surveys at each time point, reporting their child's screen time. At 10 months and 2 years, age-appropriate vocabulary assessments were conducted online. At age 5, children's vocabulary was laboratory assessed. Correlational analysis revealed a negative relationship between language scores and screen media use across all time points. Furthermore, a cross-lagged panel model demonstrated that screen media use showed significant continuity over time, with screen use at age 2 predicting language development at ages 2 and 5. This longitudinal study, spanned from 9 months to 5 years of age, established a predictive negative association between children's exposure to screen media and their vocabulary development. These findings underscore the need to consider the impact of screen media on early childhood development and may inform guidelines for screen media use in young children.

Investigation of Development of Phonology using Artificial Intelligence: A Preliminary Study

Background: Investigation of the development of acquisition of phonological processes is a very important phenomenon to predict language development in childhood. Phonological development refers to the gradual acquisition of an adult-like speech system used to convey meaning in a language. Adequate phonological development can lead to higher speech intelligibility, essential for perception and speech production. The test battery approach for phonological assessment includes formal as well as informal testing modalities. Speech intelligibility is a vital parameter for the assessment of phonological development. This is done via scoring collected audio speech samples, followed by IPA transcription and scoring and analysis of data manually. The primary objective of the study was to investigate the speech intelligibility score across real-timed stimuli (rhyming, storytelling, open-ended questions, and picture description tasks) across two age categories, i.e., 3-4 and 4-5 years among 40 Hindi-speaking children. Methods: A total of 40 children (15 girls and 25 boys) in the age range of 3 to 5 years were randomly selected from a junior high school in New Delhi, India. Groupwise speech intelligibility score was calculated for rhyming, storytelling, open-ended questions, and picture description tasks. Results: It was observed that the speech intelligibility score for open-ended questions was significantly higher in the 4-5 years group (94.09 ± 3.7) than the 3-4 years (89.83 ± 8.2), t (1, 38) =2.12, p =0.04). However, no significant improvement in rhyming task [t (1, 38) =1.14, p =0.18), storytelling [t (1, 38) =1.81, p =0.07), and picture description [t (1, 38) =1.89, p =0.06) was observed. Conclusion: Chances of error in conventional method of phonology assessment still persists which may be controlled using Artificial Intelligence (AI). The target phonetic stimulus can be customized based on the linguistic experience and environment.

The Stability and Validity of Automated Indices of Vocal Development in Infants With Autistic and Non-Autistic Siblings.

This study evaluates the extent to which automated indices of vocal development are stable and valid for predicting language in infants at increased familial likelihood for autism and/or language impairment and relatively lower likelihood infants. A group of infants with autistic siblings (Sibs-autism; 20 infants) and a comparison group of infants with non-autistic siblings (Sibs-NA; 20 infants) wore Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) recording devices for 16 hr on 2 days within a 1-week period. Extant software was used to derive several putative indices of vocal development from these recordings. Stability of these variables was examined across and within groups. Expressive and receptive language aggregates were calculated for each participant. Multiple regression analyses were used to (a) evaluate zero-order correlations for variables derived from LENA recordings with concurrent and future language and (b) test whether those associations were moderated by group status. Both stability and validity differed by variable and group status. All variables reached acceptable stability in the Sibs-autism group within two to three observations, whereas stability of most variables was attenuated in the Sibs-NA group. No variables were associated with concurrent language in the theoretically motivated direction across groups, but two variables were strongly associated with concurrent expressive language in only the Sibs-NA group. Additionally, two variables were associated with later expressive language, though these correlations were again stronger in the Sibs-NA versus Sibs-autism group. Although selected automated indices of vocal development were stable in Sibs-autism and/or valid for predicting expressive language within Sibs-NA, no scores showed strong, theoretically motivated associations with language within the Sibs-autism group. Automated indices of vocal development may, thus, have limited validity or clinical utility for predicting language development in infants at elevated familial likelihood for autism. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24415735.

Pretend play predicts language development in young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

ABSTRACT This quantitative study uses longitudinal caregiver surveys to explore the relationship between pretend play and development in children with ASD. Caregivers assessed the development of 7069 young children quarterly for three years on five subscales: combinatorial receptive language, expressive language, sociability, sensory awareness, and health. Pretend play was associated with superior developmental trajectories: 1.9-fold greater improvement of combinatorial receptive language (p < 0.0001), 1.4-fold greater improvement of expressive language (p < 0.0001), and 1.3-fold greater improvement of sensory awareness (p = 0.0009). Pretend play did not account for a significant amount of the variability in children’s sociability and health. The strong association of pretend play with combinatorial receptive language remained significant even when controlling for expressive language. Similarly, the strong association of pretend play with expressive language remained significant even when controlling for combinatorial receptive language. The association of pretend play with combinatorial receptive language was stronger than the association of seizures, sleep problems, or high-TV exposure. These findings support earlier studies suggesting that pretend play may be an important stepping stone for language acquisition and highlight a potential for pretend play therapeutic interventions.

The effects of socioeconomic status on working memory in childhood are partially mediated by intersensory processing of audiovisual events in infancy

Socioeconomic status (SES) is a well-established predictor of individual differences in childhood language and cognitive functioning, including executive functions such as working memory. In infancy, intersensory processing—selectively attending to properties of events that are redundantly specified across the senses at the expense of non-redundant, irrelevant properties—also predicts language development. Our recent research demonstrates that individual differences in intersensory processing in infancy predict a variety of language outcomes in childhood, even after controlling for SES. However, relations among intersensory processing and cognitive outcomes such as working memory have not yet been investigated. Thus, the present study examines relations between intersensory processing in infancy and working memory in early childhood, and the role of SES in this relation. Children (N = 101) received the Multisensory Attention Assessment Protocol at 12-months to assess intersensory processing (face-voice and object-sound matching) and received the WPPSI at 36-months to assess working memory. SES was indexed by maternal education, paternal education, and income. A variety of novel findings emerged. 1) Individual differences in intersensory processing at 12-months predicted working memory at 36-months of age even after controlling for SES. 2) Individual differences in SES predicted intersensory processing at 12-months of age. 3) The well-established relation between SES and working memory was partially mediated by intersensory processing. Children from families of higher-SES have better intersensory processing skills at 12-months and this combination of factors predicts greater working memory two years later at 36-months. Together these findings reveal the role of intersensory processing in cognitive functioning.

Caregiver linguistic alignment to autistic and typically developing children: A natural language processing approach illuminates the interactive components of language development

BackgroundLanguage development is a highly interactive activity. However, most research on linguistic environment has focused on the quantity and complexity of linguistic input to children, with current models showing that complexity facilitates language in both typically developing (TD) and autistic children. AimsAfter reviewing existing work on caregiver engagement of children's utterances, we aim to operationalize such engagement with automated measures of linguistic alignment, thereby providing scalable tools to assess caregivers' active reuse of their children's language. By assessing the presence of alignment, its sensitivity to the child's individual differences and how well it predicts language development beyond current models across the two groups, we showcase the usefulness of the approach and provide initial empirical foundations for further conceptual and empirical investigations. MethodsWe measure lexical, syntactic and semantic types of caregiver alignment in a longitudinal corpus involving 32 adult-autistic child and 35 adult-TD child dyads, with children between 2 and 5 years of age. We assess the extent to which caregivers repeat their children's words, syntax, and semantics, and whether these repetitions predict language development beyond more standard predictors. ResultsCaregivers tend to re-use their child's language in a way that is related to the child's individual, primarily linguistic, differences. Caregivers' alignment provides unique information improving our ability to predict future language development in both typical and autistic children. ConclusionsWe provide evidence that language development also relies on interactive conversational processes, previously understudied. We share carefully detailed methods, and open-source scripts so as to systematically extend our approach to new contexts and languages.

Neural Tracking in Infancy Predicts Language Development in Children With and Without Family History of Autism.

During speech processing, neural activity in non-autistic adults and infants tracks the speech envelope. Recent research in adults indicates that this neural tracking relates to linguistic knowledge and may be reduced in autism. Such reduced tracking, if present already in infancy, could impede language development. In the current study, we focused on children with a family history of autism, who often show a delay in first language acquisition. We investigated whether differences in tracking of sung nursery rhymes during infancy relate to language development and autism symptoms in childhood. We assessed speech-brain coherence at either 10 or 14 months of age in a total of 22 infants with high likelihood of autism due to family history and 19 infants without family history of autism. We analyzed the relationship between speech-brain coherence in these infants and their vocabulary at 24 months as well as autism symptoms at 36 months. Our results showed significant speech-brain coherence in the 10- and 14-month-old infants. We found no evidence for a relationship between speech-brain coherence and later autism symptoms. Importantly, speech-brain coherence in the stressed syllable rate (1-3 Hz) predicted later vocabulary. Follow-up analyses showed evidence for a relationship between tracking and vocabulary only in 10-month-olds but not in 14-month-olds and indicated possible differences between the likelihood groups. Thus, early tracking of sung nursery rhymes is related to language development in childhood.

Association between Motor and Language Skills Development in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Scoping Review

ABSTRACT An emerging body of literature suggests that early motor skills may be a key predictor of language development in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, characteristics of subject groups, targeted skill areas and their assessment tools, and methodological approaches significantly vary across existing studies. This scoping review aimed to map out the associative nature of motor and language skills among children with ASD according to different age groups and ancillary attributes by investigating empirical studies published in the past 20 years. We searched research articles published in peer-reviewed journals between January 2000 and December 2020 using PsycINFO, PubMed, and ERIC. A total of 11 studies were selected and analysed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews Checklist. Available evidence indicates that despite a lack of agreement among available instruments for skills assessments, there exists a positive relationship between motor and language development in that early motor skills predict the rate of both receptive and expressive language development in children with ASD. More studies on such relationship in later childhood and adolescence are warranted to provide practical implications of motor and/or language delay in children with ASD and further timely intervention development.

VP38.08: Usefulness of fetal Doppler as a predictor of language development in the first 30 months of life

VP38.08: Usefulness of fetal Doppler as a predictor of language development in the first 30 months of life

Parental Reports of Preschoolers' Lexical and Syntactic Development: Validation of the CDI-III for European Portuguese.

This study presents the validation analysis of the European Portuguese version of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory III (CDI-III-PT). The CDI-III-PT is a parental report measure allowing researchers to assess expressive vocabulary and the syntactic abilities of children aged 2;6–4;0. In this study, we present a version comprising a lexical subscale which follows the Swedish adaptation and an original syntactic subscale allowing us to include language-specific structures. The reports of 739 children were collected; in addition, a standardized measure of language was also administered to a sub-sample of these children and the reports of preschool teachers were collected for another sub-sample. The results indicate a high internal consistency of the lexical and syntactic subscales. As for sociodemographic variables often found to be predictors of language development, as measured by this type of instrument, the results indicate that age and maternal education are significant predictors of the scores, and that first-born children attain higher scores in vocabulary than later born children, but no significant gender differences were found. The scores of the CDI-III-PT are positively correlated with the ones obtained in the standardized language measure, thus supporting their validity. A high agreement between the reports of parents and teachers was also found. These findings indicate that the CDI-III-PT has adequate psychometric properties and that it can be a useful tool for research and clinical practice. The age-based norms that are now provided can be used to evaluate whether a child is performing poorly compared to their peers.

Measuring Listening Comprehension and Predicting Language Development in At-Risk Preschoolers

ABSTRACT Listening comprehension involves the ability to understand and extract meaning from spoken sentences, stories, and instruction. This skill is vital for young children and has long-term effects on school achievement, employability, income, and participation in society. There is a lack of measures of young children’s listening comprehension skills. We report on a new measure of listening comprehension (LURI) that we tested in a group of at-risk preschoolers. Using IRT (Item Response Theory) analysis, we examined the psychometric properties of the instrument. Moreover, in a series of regressions, we found that the LURI measure predicted a range of other language skills better than standardized measures. Thus, the LURI test is a reliable and valid measure of listening comprehension. Assessing listening comprehension is a time-effective way of measuring a skill critically important to language development and represents the product of a range of different oral language processes.

Maternal behaviors mediate the relationship between socioeconomic status and joint attention

Socioeconomic status (SES) is strongly related to parental behaviors and the quality of parent-child interactions. We examined whether through maternal behaviors, SES is linked to joint attention (JA), an important form of parent-child interactions predicting language development. At 12 months, 50 mother-infant dyads were video-recorded during 5-min free play. We coded for maternal behaviors (sensitivity, cognitive stimulation, positive affect, negative affect, control) and JA characteristics (frequency, duration, initiated by maternal following/directing, passive/coordinated, terminated by mother/infant). Mediation analyses showed that higher-SES mothers were more sensitive, less controlling, provided more cognitive stimulation, and displayed more positive affect resulting in JA interactions of higher quality (e.g., initiated by maternal following rather than directing infant's attention) and quantity (i.e., more time spent in JA). These findings contribute to current literature by revealing maternal behaviors as a mediator between SES and mother-infant JA interactions.

Maternal depressive symptoms and language development: The moderating role of child temperament.

The current study examined the interaction between maternal depressive symptoms and child temperament in predicting subsequent child language skills. Participants were 252 mother-child dyads recruited from the All Our Families longitudinal cohort, a primarily middle-class sample (62.9% completed postsecondary education) from Alberta, Canada (90.5% White, 6% Asian, 3.5% other). Maternal depressive symptoms at age 3, controlling for prenatal depressive symptoms, did not evidence a direct effect on child language skills at age 5 (49.6% males; mean [M] = 5.12 years old, standard deviation [SD] = .11). However, both child surgency and effortful control interacted with maternal depression at age 3 to predict later language skills. Low effortful control was a risk factor for poorer language abilities in contexts of high maternal depressive symptoms. High child surgency emerged as a differential susceptibility marker, predicting poorer language skills in contexts of high maternal depressive symptoms but better language skills in contexts of low depressive symptoms. Negative affect did not interact with maternal depressive symptoms in predicting language skills. These findings highlight the complex interaction between maternal and child characteristics in predicting language development during a developmental period in which language skills are a prime indicator of school readiness and a predictor of future academic achievement and socioemotional adjustment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Show, give, and point gestures across infancy differentially predict language development.

It is well established that deictic gestures, especially pointing, play an important role in children's language development. However, recent evidence suggests that other types of deictic gestures, specifically show and give gestures, emerge before pointing and are associated with later pointing. In the present study, we examined the development of show, give, and point gestures in a sample of 47 infants followed longitudinally from 10 to 16 months of age and asked whether there are certain ages during which different gestures are more or less predictive of language skills at 18 months. We also explored whether parents' responses vary as a function of child gesture types. Child gestures and parent responses were reliably coded from videotaped sessions of parent-child interactions. Language skills were measured at 18 months using standardized (Mullen Scales of Early Learning) and parent report (MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory) measures. We found that at 10 months, show+give gestures were a better predictor of 18-month language skills than pointing gestures were, yet at 14 months, pointing gestures were a better predictor of 18-month language skills than show+give gestures. By 16 months, children's use of speech in the interaction, not gesture, best predicted 18-month language skills. Parents responded to a higher proportion of shows+gives than to points at 10 months. These results demonstrate that different types of deictic gestures provide a window into language development at different points across infancy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Lateralized neonatal EEG coherence during sleep predicts language outcome.

Background:Enriched language exposure may benefit infants in the neonatal intensive care unit. We hypothesized that changes in neonatal EEG coherence during sleep, in response to maternal voice exposure, predict language development.Methods:Convalescent neonates underwent 12-hour polysomnography. A recording of the mother’s voice was randomized to continuous playback in the first or second 6 hours. We calculated the imaginary coherence (ICOH – a measure of functional connectivity) between EEG leads. Spearman correlations were computed between ICOH and 18-month Bayley-III Language scores.Results:Thirty-five neonates were included (N=18 33-to-<35 weeks gestation; N=17 ≥35 weeks). Predictive value of ICOH during neonatal non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep was left-lateralized and varied with gestational age and voice playback. ICOH in the left-hemispheric (C3-Cz; T3-Cz) channels across multiple EEG frequency bands was associated with 18-month language scores (rho= −0.34 to −0.48). The association was driven by neonates born at 33-34 weeks gestation, and a trend suggested a possible effect of maternal voice at some EEG frequencies. Right-hemisphere ICOH (C4-Cz; T4-Cz) was not associated with language outcome.Conclusion:Left-hemispheric EEG functional connectivity during neonatal NREM sleep shows early signs of physiologic asymmetry that may predict language development. We speculate that sleep analyses could have unique prognostic value.

A Longitudinal Study of Parent Gestures, Infant Responsiveness, and Vocabulary Development in Infants at Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder.

We investigated gesturesthat parents used with 12-, 18-, and 24-month-old infants at high or low risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD;high-risk diagnosed with ASD:n = 21; high-risk classified as no ASD:n = 34; low-risk classified as no ASD:n = 34). We also examined infant responses to parent gestures and assessed the extent to which parent gesture relates to vocabulary development. Parents of three groups gestured in similar frequencies and proportions. Infants, in turn, responded similarly to parent gestures regardless of the infant's ASD risk and later diagnosis. Finally, parents who gestured more at 12months had children with better vocabulary at 36months than parents who gestured less. These findings highlight the importance of examining parent gestures when predicting language development.

Supplemental Material for Show, Give, and Point Gestures Across Infancy Differentially Predict Language Development

Supplemental Material for Show, Give, and Point Gestures Across Infancy Differentially Predict Language Development