-
Infancy : the Official Journal of the... 2023Understanding the neural processes underpinning individual differences in early language development is of increasing interest, as it is known to vary in typical...
Understanding the neural processes underpinning individual differences in early language development is of increasing interest, as it is known to vary in typical development and to be quite heterogeneous in neurodevelopmental conditions. However, few studies to date have tested whether early brain measures are indicative of the developmental trajectory of language, as opposed to language outcomes at specific ages. We combined recordings from two longitudinal studies, including typically developing infants without a family history of autism, and infants with increased likelihood of developing autism (infant-siblings) (N = 191). Electroencephalograms (EEG) were recorded at 6 months, and behavioral assessments at 6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months of age. Using a growth curve model, we tested whether absolute EEG spectral power at 6 months was associated with concurrent language abilities, and developmental change in language between 6 and 36 months. We found evidence of an association between 6-month alpha-band power and concurrent, but not developmental change in, expressive language ability in both infant-siblings and control infants. The observed association between 6-month alpha-band power and 6-month expressive language was not moderated by group status, suggesting some continuity in neural mechanisms.
Topics: Humans; Infant; Language Development; Language; Brain; Longitudinal Studies; Electroencephalography
PubMed: 36943905
DOI: 10.1111/infa.12540 -
Scientific Data Dec 2022DyLNet is a large-scale longitudinal social experiment designed to observe the relations between child socialisation and oral language learning at preschool. During...
DyLNet is a large-scale longitudinal social experiment designed to observe the relations between child socialisation and oral language learning at preschool. During three years, a complete preschool in France was followed to record proximity interactions of about 200 children and adults every 5 seconds using autonomous Radio Frequency Identification Wireless Proximity Sensors. Data was collected monthly with one week-long deployments. In parallel, survey campaigns were carried out to record the socio-demographic and language background of children and their families, and to monitor the linguistic skills of the pupils at regular intervals. From data we inferred real social interactions and distinguished inter- and intra-class interactions in different settings. We share ten weeks of cleaned, pre-processed and reconstructed interaction data recorded over a complete school year, together with two sets of survey data providing details about the pupils' socio-demographic profile and language development level at the beginning and end of this period. Our dataset may stimulate researchers from several fields to study the simultaneous development of language and social interactions of children.
Topics: Child; Child, Preschool; Humans; Language; Language Development; Schools; Social Networking; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 36550122
DOI: 10.1038/s41597-022-01756-x -
Tijdschrift Voor Psychiatrie 2023Children with a neurodevelopmental or psychiatric disorder often have language difficulties. A large group of children has severely impaired language learning abilities...
BACKGROUND
Children with a neurodevelopmental or psychiatric disorder often have language difficulties. A large group of children has severely impaired language learning abilities in the absence of a clear cause. These children have developmental language disorder (DLD). Many children with DLD also develop psychiatric symptoms which are associated with other neurodevelopmental or psychiatric disorder.
AIM
In this article, we provide information on children with DLD, on the often atypical language development of children with other neurodevelopmental or psychiatric disorder, and on the mechanisms that may explain the co-occurrence of language problems and psychiatric symptoms.
METHODS
We discuss relevant literature and insights from clinical practice.
RESULTS
Psychiatric symptoms can hinder language development and, vice versa, children with language problems are more vulnerable to develop behavior associated with a psychiatric diagnosis. Given the frequent co-occurrence of language problems and psychiatric symptoms in children, there is a high chance that a psychiatrist will encounter children with language difficulties in daily clinical practice.
CONCLUSION
Knowledge and awareness of this co-occurrence benefits clinical care, and has important implications for diagnosis and intervention of children with neurodevelopmental or psychiatric disorders.
Topics: Humans; Child; Language Development; Mental Disorders; Learning; Attention
PubMed: 36951774
DOI: No ID Found -
Journal of Speech, Language, and... Jul 2022The purpose of this study was to identify and describe latent dual language profiles in a large sample of school-age Spanish-English bilingual children designated as...
PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to identify and describe latent dual language profiles in a large sample of school-age Spanish-English bilingual children designated as English learners (ELs) by their school district.
METHOD
Data for this study include 847 Spanish-speaking ELs from kindergarten to third grade. Spanish and English narrative retell language samples were collected from all participants. Four oral language measures were calculated in Spanish and English, including the subordination index, moving average type-token ratio, narrative structure scheme (NSS), and words per minute using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcript. These indicator measures were used in a latent profile analysis to identify dual language profiles.
RESULTS
The optimal model represents a four-profile solution, including a Spanish-dominant group (average Spanish, low English), an English-dominant group (low Spanish, average English), and two balanced groups (a balanced-average group and a balanced-high group). Additionally, participants displayed uneven performance across language domains and distinct patterns of unique strength or weakness in a specific domain in one of their two languages.
CONCLUSIONS
Findings from this study highlight the large variability in English and Spanish oral language abilities in school-age Spanish-speaking ELs and suggest that a dichotomous classification of ELs versus English-proficient students may not be sufficient to determine the type of educational program that best fits a specific bilingual child's need. These findings highlight the need to assess both languages across multiple language domains to paint a representative picture of a bilingual child's language abilities. The dual language profiles identified may be used to guide the educational program selection process to improve the congruence among the linguistic needs of an individual child, teachers' use of instructional language, and the goals of the educational program (i.e., improving English proficiency vs. supporting dual language development).
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.20151836.
Topics: Child; Humans; Child Language; Hispanic or Latino; Language; Language Development; Language Tests; Multilingualism
PubMed: 35777421
DOI: 10.1044/2022_JSLHR-21-00447 -
Journal of Child Language Jul 2023This commentary makes the argument that the child-internal and child-external sources of individual differences in bilingual development are much the same as the sources...
This commentary makes the argument that the child-internal and child-external sources of individual differences in bilingual development are much the same as the sources of individual differences in monolingual development. It makes the further argument that the operation of the child-external influences results in differences between monolingual and bilingual development in the rate and sometimes in the outcome of language acquisition. An argument is made for the scientific and practical value of understanding the differences between monolingual and bilingual development, and future directions for research are suggested.
Topics: Humans; Language; Multilingualism; Language Development
PubMed: 36734088
DOI: 10.1017/S0305000922000770 -
Autism : the International Journal of... Jan 2023More and more members of the autistic community and the research field are moving away from the idea that there will be a single biological or cognitive explanation for...
More and more members of the autistic community and the research field are moving away from the idea that there will be a single biological or cognitive explanation for autistic characteristics. However, little is known about the complex dynamic processes that could explain why early difficulties in the language and motor domain often go hand-in-hand. We here study how language and motor skills develop simultaneously in the British Autism Study of Infant Siblings cohort of infants, and compare the way they are linked between children with and without developmental delays. Our results suggest that improvements in one domain go hand-in-hand with improvements in the other in both groups and show no compelling evidence for group differences in how motor skills relate to language and vice versa. We did observe a larger diversity in motor and language skills at 6 months, and because we found the motor and language development to be tightly linked, this suggests that even very small early impairments can result in larger developmental delays in later childhood. Greater variability at baseline, combined with very strong correlations between the slopes, suggests that dynamic processes may amplify small differences between individuals at 6months to result into large individual differences in autism symptomatology at 36 months.
Topics: Infant; Child; Humans; Motor Skills; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Language; Child Development; Language Development
PubMed: 35470698
DOI: 10.1177/13623613221086448 -
Development and Psychopathology Oct 2020Parents play an essential role in supporting child development by providing a safe home, proper nutrition, and rich educational opportunities. In this article we focus... (Review)
Review
Parents play an essential role in supporting child development by providing a safe home, proper nutrition, and rich educational opportunities. In this article we focus on the role of caregiver speech in supporting development of young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We review studies from typically developing children and children with autism showing that rich and responsive caregiver speech supports language development. Autism intervention studies that target caregiver speech are reviewed as are recent scientific advances from studies of typical development. The strengths and weakness of different techniques for collecting language data from caregivers and children are reviewed, and natural language samples are recommended as best practice for language research in autism. We conclude that caregivers play a powerful role in shaping their children's development and encourage researchers to adapt parent-mediated intervention studies to acknowledge individual differences in parents by using a personalized medicine approach.
Topics: Autism Spectrum Disorder; Caregivers; Child, Preschool; Humans; Infant; Language Development; Parents; Speech
PubMed: 32893764
DOI: 10.1017/S0954579420000838 -
International Journal of Environmental... Dec 2023Language development starts during the fetal period when the brain is sensitive to endocrine disruptions from environmental contaminants. This systematic review aims to... (Review)
Review
Language development starts during the fetal period when the brain is sensitive to endocrine disruptions from environmental contaminants. This systematic review aims to systematically summarize the existing literature on early-life exposure to PFAS and children's language and communication development, which is an indicator of neurocognitive development. A structured literature search was conducted using three databases, PubMed, Scopus, and CINAHL, last updated in April 2023. The population was defined as children and young adults. PFAS exposure was assessed pre- or postnatally. The outcome was defined as a language and communication ability assessed with validated instruments, parental self-reports, or clinical language disorder diagnoses. In total, 15 studies were identified for subsequent analyses. Thirteen were performed in background-exposed populations and two in highly exposed populations. There were some indications of potential adverse effects; however, these were not consistent across child sex, age of assessment, or PFAS exposure levels. No systematic effect of early-life PFAS exposure on language and communication development was found. These inconclusive findings may partly be explained by the use of general test instruments with limited validity as to children's language and communication development. Further studies over a wider exposure range using specific language test instruments are needed.
Topics: Child; Female; Young Adult; Humans; Child Language; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; Fluorocarbons; Language Development; Communication; Environmental Pollutants; Alkanesulfonic Acids
PubMed: 38131721
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20247170 -
Frontiers in Public Health 2020Adverse communication development in preschool children is a risk factor influencing child health and well-being with a negative impact on social participation....
Adverse communication development in preschool children is a risk factor influencing child health and well-being with a negative impact on social participation. Language and social skills develop and maintain human adaptability over the life course. However, the accuracy of detecting language problems in asymptomatic children in primary care needs to be improved. Therefore, it is important to identify concerns about language development as a risk factor for child health. The association between parental and professional caregivers' concerns about language development and the level of preschool social participation was assessed, as well as the possible mediating/moderating effect of the perception of social competence. In addition, validity and predictive value of parental and professional caregivers' concerns about language development were tested. To identify emerging concerns about development and social participation, a community sample of 341 preschool children was systematically assessed with a comprehensive preventive child health care "toolkit" of instruments, including parent-completed tools like the Parents' Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS) and child competence Visual Analog Scales (VAS). At baseline, children were aged 3 years and at follow-up ~4 years. There was a statistically significant association between parental and professional caregivers' concerns about language development and the level of preschool social participation, with a mediating effect of child social competence at the age of 3 years as well as 4 years. Negative predictive value of parental and professional caregiver language concerns at the age of 3 and 4 years were 99 and 97%, respectively. Furthermore, this article showed that while some preschool children grow out of language problems, others may develop them. Short but valid pediatric primary care tools like the PEDS and child competence VAS can support monitoring and early identification of concerns about language development and social competence as a risk factor for preschool social participation. Personalized health care requires continued communication between parents, professional caregivers and preventive child health care about parental and professional caregiver perceptions concerning preschool language development as well as the perception of a child's social competence.
Topics: Caregivers; Child; Child, Preschool; Communication; Humans; Language Development; Parents; Social Participation
PubMed: 33585376
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.546536 -
Journal of Speech, Language, and... Jan 2022The aim of this study was to evaluate whether families of children with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) are organized similarly to those of typically developing,...
PURPOSE
The aim of this study was to evaluate whether families of children with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) are organized similarly to those of typically developing, typically hearing (TH) children and whether the dimensions of family dynamics and environment are related to spoken language development similarly in children with and without SNHL.
METHOD
Primary caregivers of children with SNHL ( = 63) or TH ( = 65) completed the Family Environment Scale-Fourth Edition (FES-4) to assess multiple dimensions of family environment. Children's receptive vocabulary was assessed with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Fourth Edition, and their receptive language was assessed by an age-appropriate version of the Concepts and Following Directions subtest of the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals and the Sentence Comprehension subscale of the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language-Second Edition. Principal component analysis was used to examine the dimensional structure of the family environment.
RESULTS
Three higher order components were derived from FES-4 subscales for both families of children with SNHL and with TH: Supportive, Controlling, and Conflicted. However, the composition of the factors themselves differed between the two groups. For the TH group, most family environment measures on the FES-4 were not associated with language outcomes. In contrast, for children with SNHL, families who were more supportive, less controlling, and less conflicted had children with better language skills.
CONCLUSIONS
Three well-accepted dimensions of family dynamics and functioning apply to families of children with SNHL, but their composition differs from those of families with TH children. Family environmental dynamics were much more strongly associated with language outcomes in children with SNHL than in their TH peers. The spoken language development of children with SNHL, in particular, is better in families that provide high levels of support for each other and, in particular, low levels of control, disorganization, and conflict, reflecting the fragile nature of their spoken language development.
Topics: Child; Deafness; Family Relations; Hearing Loss; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural; Humans; Language Development
PubMed: 34818506
DOI: 10.1044/2021_JSLHR-21-00220