Child gender has been proved to affect toddlers'/children's language development in several studies, but its effect was not found to be stable across different ages or various aspects of language ability. The effect of gender on toddler's, children's and adolescents' language ability was examined in the present meta-analysis of ten Slovenian…

This study analyzed spontaneous language samples of three-year-olds with a history of expressive language delay (late talkers) and age-matched controls using Dore's Conversational Acts analysis (1978) and Mean Length of Utterance (MLU; Brown, 1973). Differences were observed between groups in utterances classified as organizational device and…

Purpose: The current study used an intervention design to test the hypothesis that parent input sentences with diverse lexical noun phrase (NP) subjects would accelerate growth in children's sentence diversity. Method: Child growth in third person sentence diversity was modeled from 21-30 months (n = 38) in conversational language samples obtained…

Aim: Very-low-birthweight (VLBW; birthweight less than 1500g and/or gestational age less than 32wks) children are at risk for speech problems. However, there are few studies on speech development in VLBW children at an early age. The aim of this study was to investigate phonological development in 2-year-old VLBW children. Method: Twenty VLBW…

According to the findings of several studies, parents' assessments of their toddler's language are valid and reliable evaluations of children's language competence, especially at early development stages. This study examined whether preschool teachers, who spend a relatively great deal of time with toddlers in various preschool activities and…

The use of four types of psychological state words (physiological, emotional, desire, and cognitive) during mother-child play sessions at ages 3, 4, and 5 years was examined in 30 children diagnosed with delayed expressive language at 24-31 months and 15 age-matched comparison children with typical development. The children's mean length of…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether children exposed to 2 languages would benefit from the phonotactic probability cues of a single language in the same way as monolingual peers and to determine whether crosslinguistic influence would be present in a fast-mapping task. Method: Two groups of typically developing children…

This study applies the Phonological Mean Length of Utterance measurement (PMLU; Ingram & Ingram, 2001; Ingram, 2002) to the data of five children acquiring Finnish and evaluates their phonological development longitudinally at four different age points: 2;0, 2;6, 3;0, and 3;6. The children's results on PMLU and related measures are discussed…

Methamphetamine (meth) exposure during fetal development has the potential to adversely affect the development of multiple organ systems. An interdisciplinary case study of a 4-year 11-month-old child born to a mother addicted to meth revealed significant cognitive and communicative delays. Possible meth-related consequences for these delays…