We compared dyad-focused maternal speech (protoconversations and maternal speech describing the dyad) in interactions of mothers with their twin and singleton infants. Nine twins and nine singletons, coming from urban areas of Crete (Greece), were video-recorded at home in spontaneous face-to-face interactions with their mothers, from the 2nd to…

The development of language skills is critical to the academic success and overall well-being of children. Research shows that late talking, defined as delayed expressive language development in toddlers, negatively impacts future language and literacy skills. The early identification of children at risk of late talking can significantly improve…

Purpose: This study compares the home language environments of children with (a suspicion of) developmental language disorder (DLD) with that of children with typical development (TD). It does so by adopting new technology that automatically provides metrics about children's language environment (Language ENvironment Analysis [LENA]). In addition,…

Twenty-eight Albanian-Greek bilingual children with Developmental Language Disorder and 28 children with Autism Spectrum Disorder but no language impairment, along with 28 typically-developing, age-, Performance IQ- and socioeconomic status-matched bilingual children were asked to produce two expository texts which were coded for spelling…

Associations between home learning opportunities, parental growth mindset (the belief that intelligence is malleable), and children's academic skills have been documented primarily in European descent communities. Less is known about other communities. This study examined associations among home learning opportunities, parental mindsets, and child…

Associations between home learning opportunities, parental growth mindset (the belief that intelligence is malleable), and children's academic skills have been documented primarily in European descent communities. Less is known about other communities. This study examined associations among home learning opportunities, parental mindsets, and child…

Purpose: Caregivers of autistic children present with high stress levels, which have been associated with poorer child outcomes in several domains, including language development. However, prior to this study, it was unknown whether elevated caregiver stress was associated with language development in infant siblings of autistic children…

Usage-based theories of language development underscore the importance of children using language to learn language. Few investigations have applied usage-based theories to dual language learners (DLLs), who comprise a growing share of children attending early education programs in the U.S. Three studies were carried out to investigate the role of…

This study examined the extended discourse used by two Deaf parents with their two Deaf children (ages two and four). The study was conducted using an in-depth examination of parental expressive use of American Sign Language, looking at the use of discourse and the features and contexts that offered the most opportunity for rich language…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of socioeconomic deprivation on language and developmental outcomes in toddlers with cleft palate with or without cleft lip (CP ± L). Other factors known to influence language outcomes were also considered, including home language history, history of hearing problems, syndromic…

Assessing vocabulary knowledge is an important part of establishing language proficiency in bilingual children. The crosslinguistic lexical tasks (CLTs) provide a framework for testing vocabulary development in three-to-six year-olds using a standard procedure and comparable items for multiple languages. This study describes the development of the…

The present study investigates the relation between language environment and language delay in 63 British-English speaking children (19 typical talkers (TT), 22 late talkers (LT), and 22 late bloomers (LB) aged 13 to 18 months. Families audio recorded daily routines and marked the new words their child produced over a period of 6 months. To…

This longitudinal study investigated the effects of maternal emotional health concerns, on infants' home language environment, vocalization quantity, and expressive language skills. Mothers and their infants (at 6 and 12 months; 21 mothers with depression and or anxiety and 21 controls) provided day-long home-language recordings. Compared with…

The current study investigated language development of children residing in institutional care (IC) in Russia, compared to peers raised by biological family care (BFC). We used standardized behavioral testing (Preschool Language Scale-5, McArthur CDI), and an event-related potential picture-word matching paradigm. Children in IC significantly…

Maternal depression and anxiety are potential risk factors to children's language environments and development. Though existing work has examined relations between these constructs, further work is needed accounting for both depression and anxiety and using more direct measures of the home language environment and children's language development.…