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Early Language Development (early + language_development)
Selected AbstractsHousehold food security is associated with early childhood language development: results from a longitudinal study in rural BangladeshCHILD: CARE, HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 3 2010K. K. Saha Abstract Background Although household food security (HHFS) has been linked to academic performance in school children, its association with early childhood development has received less attention, particularly in low-income countries. We investigated the association of HHFS with subsequent language development of children at 18 months of age in rural Bangladesh. Methods We followed 1439 infants born in 2002,2003 to the mothers in Maternal and Infant Nutrition Intervention in Matlab study, a large intervention trial conducted in rural Bangladesh. A HHFS scale was created from data collected from mothers during pregnancy. At 18 months, children's language (expression and comprehension) development was assessed using a Bengali adaptation of MacArthur's Communicative Development Inventory which was based on mothers' report of their children's ability to comprehend and express words in different categories. General linear regression models were used to examine the association between HHFS and language development at 18 months of age adjusting for potential confounders. Results Household food security was associated with language comprehension (B = 0.19, 95% CI = 0.09, 0.30, P < 0.001) and expression (B = 1.01, 95% CI = 1.00, 1.02, P < 0.01) at 18 months of age. Mean language comprehension and expression at 18 months of the children in higher quartiles of HHFS were higher (P < 0.05) than those of the children in lower quartiles. Conclusions Household food security is positively associated with subsequent language development of rural Bangladeshi children. Early language development has been reported to predict later child development. Therefore, strategies to ensure HHFS status in Bangladesh and similar settings should be considered for optimum child development. [source] The role of epilepsy in early language development in a child with a congenital lesion in the right hemisphereDEVELOPMENTAL MEDICINE & CHILD NEUROLOGY, Issue 11 2008C Mayor-Dubois MA Early epilepsy is known to worsen the developmental prognosis of young children with a congenital focal brain lesion, but its direct role is often very difficult to delineate from the other variables. This requires prolonged periods of follow-up with simultaneous serial electrophysiological and developmental assessments which are rarely obtained. We studied a male infant with a right prenatal infarct in the territory of the right middle cerebral artery resulting in a left spastic hemiparesis, and an epileptic disorder (infantile spasms with transient right hemihypsarrhythmia and focal seizures) from the age of 7 months until the age of 4 years. Pregnancy and delivery were normal. A dissociated delay of early language acquisition affecting mainly comprehension without any autistic features was documented. This delay was much more severe than usually expected in children with early focal lesions, and its evolution, with catch-up to normal, was correlated with the active phase of the epilepsy. We postulate that the epilepsy specifically amplified a pattern of delayed language emergence, mainly affecting lexical comprehension, reported in children with early right hemisphere damage. [source] Biased to learn languageDEVELOPMENTAL SCIENCE, Issue 6 2007Núria Sebastián-Gallés Some recent publications that explore the foundations of early language development are reviewed in this article. The review adopts the pivotal idea that infants' advancements are helped by the existence of different types of biases. The infant's discovery of the phonological properties of the language of the environment, as well as their learning of words, is assisted by different types of processing biases, ranging from perceptual to social factors. [source] Wobbles, humps and sudden jumps: a case study of continuity, discontinuity and variability in early language developmentINFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2007Marijn van Dijk Abstract Current individual-based, process-oriented approaches (dynamic systems theory and the microgenetic perspective) have led to an increase of variability-centred studies in the literature. The aim of this article is to propose a technique that incorporates variability in the analysis of the shape of developmental change. This approach is illustrated by the analysis of time serial language data, in particular data on the development of preposition use, collected from four participants. Visual inspection suggests that the development of prepositions-in-contexts shows a characteristic pattern of two phases, corresponding with a discontinuity. Three criteria for testing such discontinuous phase-wise change in individual data are presented and applied to the data. These are: (1) the sub-pattern criterion, (2) the peak criterion and (3) the membership criterion. The analyses rely on bootstrap and resampling procedures based on various null hypotheses. The results show that there are some indications of discontinuity in all participants, although clear inter-individual differences have been found, depending on the criteria used. In the discussion we will address several fundamental issues concerning (dis)continuity and variability in individual-based, process-oriented data sets. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Maternal speech style with prelinguistic twin infantsINFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2003Sue Butler Abstract The mother,infant communicative speech of a group of mothers of 4-month-old first-born twin infants was compared to the speech of a group of mothers of first-born singleton infants. Maternal groups were matched on age, education level, mother,infant attachment status and infant gender, and maternal depression was assessed as a control variable. Maternal speech was coded for focus, content, complexity and syntax of mothers' utterances. The findings of earlier studies with toddler age twins, that maternal speech style was more directive and less infant-focused, were replicated in this prelinguistic period of infancy. Compared to mothers of singletons, mothers of twins used less infant-focused speech, were less responsive to their infants' cues, and attributed less agency to their infants. Mothers of twins also used fewer questions and requests but did not differ from mothers of singletons in their use of negatives and imperatives. These early differences in the language learning environments of twin and singleton infants may be due to the reduced opportunities that mothers of twins have to establish dyadic communicative routines with their infants and to familiarize themselves with their infants as interactive partners, and may have implications for the early language development of twins. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||