Receptive and expressive language ability differentially support symbolic understanding over time: Picture comprehension in late talking and typically developing children

Previous studies report that minimally verbal children with autism spectrum disorder show impaired picture comprehension when matched to typically developing controls on language comprehension. Here, we compare both picture comprehension and picture production abilities in linguistically delayed children with autism spectrum disorder and typically developing controls matched on language comprehension and language production. Participants were 20 children with autism spectrum disorder ( M age: 11.2 years) and 20 typically developing children ( M age: 4.4 years) matched on age equivalents for receptive language (autism spectrum disorder, M: 4.6 years; typically developing, M: 4.5 years) and expressive language (autism spectrum disorder, M: 4.4 years; typically developing, M: 4.5 years). Picture comprehension was assessed by asking children to identify the three-dimensional referents of line drawings. Picture production was assessed by asking children to create representational drawings of unfamiliar objects and having raters identify their referents. The results of both picture tasks revealed statistically equivalent performance for typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder, and identical patterns of performance across trial types. These findings suggest that early deficits in pictorial understanding displayed by minimally verbal individuals may diminish as their expressive language skills develop. Theoretically, our study indicates that development in linguistic and pictorial domains may be inter-related for children with autism spectrum disorder (as is the case for typical development).

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Receptive and expressive language ability differentially scaffold symbolic understanding over time: picture comprehension in late talking and typically developing children

10.31234/osf.io/tjw72 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Rachael W Cheung ◽

Calum Hartley ◽

Padraic Monaghan

Keyword(s):

Task Performance ◽

Language Skills ◽

Receptive Vocabulary ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Expressive Vocabulary ◽

Social Ability ◽

Verbal Labels ◽

Symbolic Understanding ◽

Over Time ◽

Picture Comprehension

Symbols are a hallmark of human communication, and a key question is how children’s emerging language skills relate to their ability to comprehend symbols. In particular, receptive and expressive vocabulary may have related, but distinct roles across early development. In a longitudinal study of late talking (LT) and typically developing (TD) children, we differentiated the extent to which expressive and receptive language skills predicted symbolic understanding as reflected in picture comprehension, and how language skills inter-related with social skills. LT and TD children were tested on a picture comprehension task that manipulated the availability of verbal labels at 2.0 – 2.4 years and 3.5 – 3.9 years. While all children improved in accuracy over time as expected, TD children exhibited an advantage over LT children, despite both groups utilising verbal labels to inform their mapping of picture-object relationships. Receptive and expressive vocabulary also differed in their contribution at different ages: receptive vocabulary predicted performance at ~2-years-old, and expressive vocabulary predicted performance at ~3.5-years-old. Task performance at 3.5-years-old was predicted by earlier receptive vocabulary, but this effect was largely mediated by concurrent expressive vocabulary. Social ability across the whole sample at ~2-years-old also predicted and mediated the effect of receptive vocabulary on concurrent task performance. These findings suggest that LT children may have delays in developing picture comprehension over time, and also that social ability and language skills may differentially relate to symbolic understanding at key moments across development.

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Children's referential understanding of novel words and parent labeling behaviors: similarities across children with and without autism spectrum disorders

Journal of Child Language ◽

10.1017/s0305000912000426 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 40 (5) ◽

pp. 971-1002 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

HANADY BANI HANI ◽

ANA MARIA GONZALEZ-BARRERO ◽

APARNA S. NADIG

Keyword(s):

Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽

Word Learning ◽

Autism Spectrum ◽

Social Cues ◽

Language Ability ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Typically Developing Children ◽

Children With Asd ◽

Spectrum Disorders ◽

Age Range

ABSTRACTThis study examined two facets of the use of social cues for early word learning in parent–child dyads, where children had an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or were typically developing. In Experiment 1, we investigated word learning and generalization by children with ASD (age range: 3;01–6;02) and typically developing children (age range: 1;02–4;09) who were matched on language ability. In Experiment 2, we examined verbal and non-verbal parental labeling behaviors. First, we found that both groups were similarly able to learn a novel label using social cues alone, and to generalize this label to other representations of the object. Children who utilized social cues for word learning had higher language levels. Second, we found that parental cues used to introduce object labels were strikingly similar across groups. Moreover, parents in both groups adapted labeling behavior to their child's language level, though this surfaced in different ways across groups.

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From action to language through gesture

Gesture ◽

10.1075/gest.5.1.12cap ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 5 (1-2) ◽

pp. 155-177 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Olga Capirci ◽

Annarita Contaldo ◽

Maria Cristina Caselli ◽

Virginia Volterra

Keyword(s):

Language Development ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Typically Developing Children ◽

Main Hypothesis ◽

Data Analyses ◽

Spontaneous Interaction ◽

Changes Over Time ◽

The Relationship ◽

Over Time ◽

First Words

The present study reports empirical longitudinal data on the early stages of language development. The main hypothesis is that the output systems of speech and gesture may draw on underlying brain mechanisms common to both language and motor functions. We analyze the spontaneous interaction with their parents of three typically-developing children (2 M, 1 F) videotaped monthly at home between 10 and 23 months of age. Data analyses focused on the production of actions, representational and deictic gestures and words, and gesture-word combinations. Results indicate that there is a continuity between the production of the first action schemes, the first gestures and the first words produced by children. The relationship between gestures and words changes over time. The onset of two-word speech was preceded by the emergence of gesture-word combinations. The results are discussed in order to integrate and support the evolutionary and neurophysiological views of language origins and development.

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Mean length of utterance among Mandarin-speaking children with and without DLD

Child Language Teaching and Therapy ◽

10.1177/0265659020945366 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 36 (3) ◽

pp. 165-179

Author(s):

Shang-Yu Wu

Keyword(s):

Language Disorders ◽

Language Ability ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Typically Developing Children ◽

Developmental Language Disorders ◽

Mean Length Of Utterance

This study explored the differences in mean length of utterance (MLU) and mean length of the five longest utterances (MLU5) between 5–6-year-old Mandarin-speaking children, and between typically developing children and children with developmental language disorders (DLD). Eighty-nine typically developing children and 35 children with a DLD participated in this study. The researchers collected, transcribed, and analysed language samples from these children. MLU and MLU5 were analysed and compared between the groups. The results showed that MLU and MLU5 were significantly higher for 6-year-olds than 5-year-olds. Also, both MLU measures were significantly lower for children with DLD than for typically developing children. The findings demonstrate that MLU and MLU5 can be used to evaluate language ability and to identify children with DLD among Mandarin-speaking children aged 5 and 6 years.

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Vocalization patterns in young children with Down syndrome: Utilizing the language environment analysis (LENA) to inform behavioral phenotypes

Journal of Intellectual Disabilities ◽

10.1177/1744629517708091 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 22 (4) ◽

pp. 328-345 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Chandni Parikh ◽

Ann M Mastergeorge

Keyword(s):

Down Syndrome ◽

Expressive Language ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Typically Developing Children ◽

Behavioral Phenotypes ◽

Environment Analysis ◽

Targeted Interventions ◽

Children With Down Syndrome ◽

Language Environment Analysis ◽

Language Environment

Children with Down syndrome (DS) are at higher risk for both delayed expressive language and poor speech intelligibility. The current study utilized the quantitative automated language environment analysis (LENA) to depict mother and child vocalizations and conversational patterns in the home of 43 children with DS, chronologically aged 24–64 months. Children with DS displayed fewer utterances than typically developing children; however, there was wide variability. Furthermore, children with DS did not show increased vocalization counts across their chronological ages. In contrast to previous findings, this study found that the mothers of children with DS had a reduced number of vocalizations. However, the vocalizations increased with age in comparison to mothers of typically developing children. Implications for targeted interventions that facilitate learning opportunities in bidirectional contexts for children with DS and their parents are discussed, with particular attention to quantify behavioral phenotypes utilizing a novel expressive language assessment tool.

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You may point, but do not touch: Impact of gesture-types and cognition on language in typical and atypical development

10.31219/osf.io/wr2ke ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Mila Vulchanova ◽

Joana Acha ◽

Sara Ramos-Cabo ◽

Valentin Vulchanov

Keyword(s):

Index Finger ◽

Longitudinal Design ◽

Expressive Language ◽

Children With Autism ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Typically Developing Children ◽

Communicative Development ◽

Atypical Development ◽

One Year

We investigated whether two types of pointing hand features (index finger and open palm pointing) and three types of relation with the referent (manipulation, contact, no contact) similarly predict language in children with and without autism, and whether cognition mediates the longitudinal relationship between pointing and language development. Sixteen children with autism, thirteen children at high risk for autism, and eighteen typically developing children participated in an interactive gesture-elicitation task and were tested on standardized cognitive and expressive language batteries in a longitudinal design. Cognition was a significant and direct predictor of language skills in all groups. However, index finger pointing was a direct predictor of language in the autism group above and beyond cognition. In addition, index finger pointing total score and percentage of no contact pointing bids were key predictors of expressive language measured one year apart, once the effect of group, expressive language and cognition at Time 1 were controlled. Findings highlight the role of cognition in communicative development, but suggest a key role of index finder use in the longitudinal relationship between deictic gestures and language atypical development above and beyond cognition.

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Early Phonological Predictors of Toddler Language Outcomes

Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica ◽

10.1159/000503230 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 72 (6) ◽

pp. 442-453

Author(s):

Kayla Gerhold ◽

Catherine Torrington Eaton ◽

Rochelle S. Newman ◽

Nan Bernstein Ratner

Keyword(s):

Language Skills ◽

Expressive Language ◽

Syllable Structure ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Phonological Development ◽

Language Outcomes ◽

Language Performance ◽

Typically Developing Children ◽

Mean Length Of Utterance ◽

Structure Patterns

Purpose: Several studies have explored relationships between children’s early phonological development and later language performance. This literature has included a more recent focus on the potential for early phonological profiles to predict later language outcomes. Methods: The present study longitudinally examined the nature of phonetic inventories and syllable structure patterns of 48 typically developing children at 7, 11, and 18 months, and related them to expressive language outcomes at 2 years of age. Results: Findings provide evidence that as early as 11 months, phonetic inventory and mean syllable structure level are related to 24-month expressive language outcomes, including mean length of utterance and vocabulary diversity in spontaneous language samples, and parent-reported vocabulary scores. Consonant inventories in particular differed at 11 and 18 months for 2-year-olds with lower versus higher language skills. Conclusion: Limited inventories and syllable repertoires may add to risk profiles for later language delays.

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Consistency of Handwriting Performance across the Early Elementary Grades

OTJR Occupation Participation and Health ◽

10.1177/153944920502500403 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 25 (4) ◽

pp. 143-148 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Deborah Marr

Keyword(s):

Early Identification ◽

Third Grade ◽

Elementary Grades ◽

Individual Data ◽

Early Elementary ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Typically Developing Children ◽

The Relationship ◽

Over Time

The purpose of this study was to examine the consistency of handwriting performance in typically developing children from kindergarten to third grade. Eighty-nine children participated. The relationship between kindergarten handwriting performance and third grade handwriting performance was r = .18. Analysis of individual data revealed that 14% of the low-performing students (n = 2) remained consistent in their performance from kindergarten to third grade. The relationship between kindergarten and third grade handwriting provides initial evidence that consistency in low handwriting performance among typically developing children does not exist. Early identification of children with low handwriting performance continues to be recommended. Monitoring the handwriting performance of all children over time and providing remediation as needed may be the more strategic path to follow.

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Children's Ability to Recall Obligatory and Optional Acts within a Script and Over Time

International Journal of Education ◽

10.5296/ije.v9i4.11873 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Emily Laccona ◽

Betty Kollia ◽

Jim Tsiamtsiouris

Keyword(s):

Age Groups ◽

Second Graders ◽

Typically Developing ◽

Older Children ◽

Typically Developing Children ◽

Retention Period ◽

Post Exposure ◽

Over Time

The goal of this research was to investigate children’s recall of optional and obligatory elements of a script-based story as the retention period increased. Typically developing children, 20 kindergarteners and 20 second graders, participated. Children were asked to retell a story immediately after exposure to it, as well as one week post-, and two weeks post-exposure. Findings provide evidence that children of both age groups were able to marshal their script knowledge to recall stories over time. Older children were able to recall more elements and more of both, obligatory and optional elements, than younger children across all recall attempts.

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