Language Development and Late Talkers: A Connectionist Perspective

2011 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 861-887 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTINA F. PAPAELIOU ◽  
LESLIE A. RESCORLA

ABSTRACTThis study investigated vocabulary size and vocabulary composition in Greek children aged 1 ; 6 to 2 ; 11 using a Greek adaptation of Rescorla's Language Development Survey (LDS; Rescorla, 1989). Participants were 273 toddlers coming from monolingual Greek-speaking families. Greek LDS data were compared with US LDS data obtained from the instrument's normative sample (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000). Vocabulary size increased markedly with age, but Greek toddlers appeared to get off to a slower start in early word learning than US children. The correlation between percentage word use scores in Greek and US samples was moderate in size, indicating considerable overlap but some differences. Common nouns were the largest category among the fifty most frequent words in both samples. Numbers of adjectives and verbs were comparable across languages, but people and closed-class words were more numerous in the Greek sample. Finally, Greek late talkers showed similar patterns of vocabulary composition to those observed in typically developing Greek children.


2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 1020-1037 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHELLE MACROY-HIGGINS ◽  
ELIZABETH A. MONTEMARANO

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to examine attention allocation in toddlers who were late talkers and toddlers with typical language development while they were engaged in a word-learning task in order to determine if differences exist. Two-year-olds who were late talkers (11) and typically developing toddlers (11) were taught twelve novel pseudo-words for unfamiliar objects over ten training sessions. The toddlers' attention allocation during the word-learning sessions was measured as well as their comprehension of the newly learned words. Late talkers showed reduced attention allocation to objects during word-training sessions, and also comprehended fewer of the novel words than toddlers with typical language development. Attention allocation was found to be a stronger predictor of word learning as compared to cognition and auditory comprehension. Reduced attention allocation may contribute to the early lexical delay characteristic in late talkers.


1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 852-867 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Ellis Weismer ◽  
Jamie Murray-Branch ◽  
Jon F. Miller

This longitudinal investigation charted the course of cognitive and language development from the prelinguistic period to multiword productions in 19 typically developing (TD) toddlers and 4 toddlers who were subsequently identified as having late onset of expressive language. Assessments were conducted at 3-month intervals over a 21-month period, with 12 months of prospective assessment data comparing the TD and late talker (LT) subjects (mean CA: 13 to 25 months) and 9 months of follow-up data (mean CA: 25–34 months) on the 4 subjects who were identified as late talkers at age 2. Three different developmental profiles were identified, and predictors of expressive language outcomes for the LT subjects were evaluated.


Gesture ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 251-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Grimminger ◽  
Katharina J. Rohlfing ◽  
Prisca Stenneken

To evaluate the influence of lexical development and task demands on maternal gestural behavior, we observed 17 German-speaking mothers and their children with typically language development (TD) and 9 mothers with their late talkers (LT) aged 22–25 months in task-oriented dialogues. Mothers instructed their children to put two objects together; canonical and — as more difficult tasks — noncanonical spatial relationships were requested. Deictic gestures were dominant in both groups and were used to reinforce speech. However, LT’s mothers gestured more than TD’s mothers and tended to hold their gestures throughout a complete utterance. Regarding the task demands, all mothers gestured more in noncanonical settings and this trend was more pronounced in LT’s mothers. Thus, certain aspects of gestural motherese (frequency and duration of gestures but not redundancy) seem to ‘operate’ on a scale between task difficulty and children’s language skills, suggesting that maternal communicative behavior is fine-tuned to children’s learning process.


2000 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
LESLIE RESCORLA ◽  
JENNIFER MIRAK ◽  
LEHER SINGH

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. e182-190
Author(s):  
Peyman Nouraey ◽  
Mohammad A Ayatollahi ◽  
Marzieh Moghadas

Infants usually say their first word at the age of 12 months; subsequently, within the next 6–12 months, they develop a vocabulary of approximately 50 words, along with the ability to make two-word combinations. However, late talkers (LTs) demonstrate delayed speech in the absence of hearing impairments, cognitive developmental issues or relevant birth history. The prevalence of late language emergence (LLE) in toddlers is reported to be 10–15%. Studies of LTs are both theoretically and clinically significant. Early diagnosis and clinical intervention may result in relatively stable speech capabilities by the early school years. The present article aimed to review both theoretical and empirical studies regarding LLE within the process of first language acquisition, as well as methods for the early diagnosis of delayed speech in children and the authors’ own clinical and theoretical recommendations. Keywords: Infants; Speech; Language Development; Speech-Language Pathology; Language Development Disorders; Rehabilitation of Speech and Language Disorders.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Suttora ◽  
Mariagrazia Zuccarini ◽  
Arianna Aceti ◽  
Luigi Corvaglia ◽  
Annalisa Guarini ◽  
...  

Several qualitative and quantitative features of parental speech input support children’s language development and may play a critical role in improving such process in late talkers. Parent-implemented interventions targeting late-talkers have been developed to promote children’s language outcomes by enhancing their linguistic environment, i.e., parental speech input. This study investigated the effect of a parent-implemented intervention in increasing late talkers’ expressive skills through modifications in structural and functional features of parental speech input. Forty-six thirty-one-month-old late talkers differing in their birth condition (either low-risk preterm or full-term) participated in the study with a parent; 24 parent-child dyads received a parent-implemented intervention centered on dialogic reading and focused stimulation techniques, whereas the other 22 dyads constituted the control group. At pre- and post-intervention, dyads took part in a parent-child shared book-reading session and both parental and child’s speech measures were collected and examined. Results showed that the intervention positively affected parents’ use of responses and expansions of children’s verbal initiatives, as well as the parental amount of talking over reading, whereas no structural features of parental input resulted modified. Mediation analyses pointed out that the intervention indirectly enhanced late-talkers’ use of verbal types and tokens through changes in parental use of expansions and amount of talking over reading. As birth status was entered as a covariate in the analysis, these findings can be extended to children with different gestational age. We conclude that the parent-implemented intervention was effective in supporting late-talkers’ gains in language development as a cascade result of the improvements in parental contingency and dialogic reading abilities. These promising findings suggest to examine not only children and parental outcomes but also the intervention mechanisms promoting changes in late-talkers’ language development as a clearer view on such process can inform the development of feasible, ecological and effective programs.


1997 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 1037-1047 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhea Paul ◽  
Candace Murray ◽  
Kathleen Clancy ◽  
David Andrews

Children with a history of slow expressive language development (SELD) were followed to second grade, at which point outcomes in terms of speech, language, cognitive skills, reading achievement, and metaphonological performance were evaluated. Although there were some statistically significant differences between groups, children with a history of SELD generally performed within the normal range on the measures collected. Relations among speech, reading, and metaphonology in the SELD cohort appeared to operate in a manner similar to that seen in groups with typical language development. The implications of these findings for understanding the nature of specific language impairments and for treating early circumscribed language delays are discussed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 101 (3) ◽  
pp. 272-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne O'Hare ◽  
Lynne Bremner

The identification of developmental problems in a child's acquisition of speech, language and/or communication is a core activity in child surveillance. These are common difficulties with up to 15% of toddlers being ‘late talkers’ and 7% of children entering school with persisting impairments of their language development. These delays can confer disadvantages in the long term, adversely affecting language, cognition, academic attainment, behaviour and mental health. All children presenting with significant speech and language delay should be investigated with a comprehensive hearing assessment and be considered for speech and language therapy assessment. Socioeconomic adversity correlates with delayed language development. Clinical assessment should confirm that the presentation is definitely not acquired (see part 2) and will also guide whether the difficulty is primary, in which there are often familial patterns, or secondary, from a very wide range of aetiologies. Symptoms may be salient, such as the regression of communication in <3-year-olds which ‘flags up’ autism spectrum disorder. Further investigation will be informed from this clinical assessment, for example, genetic investigation for sex aneuploidies in enduring primary difficulties. Management of the speech and language difficulty itself is the realm of the speech and language therapist, who has an ever-increasing evidence-based choice of interventions. This should take place within a multidisciplinary team, particularly for children with more severe conditions who may benefit from individualised parental and educational supports.


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