We investigated age-related decline in adult learning of Dutch as an additional language (Ln) in speaking, writing, listening, and reading proficiency test scores for 56,024 adult immigrants with 50 L1s who came to the Netherlands for study or work. Performance for all four language skills turned out to decline monotonically after an age of…

This study investigated to what extent the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-4) is a reliable tool for measuring vocabulary knowledge of English as a second language (L2), and to what extent L1 characteristics affect test outcomes. The PPVT-4 was administered to Dutch pupils in six different age groups (4-15 years old) who were or were not…

Previous research indicates that infant-directed speech (IDS) is usually slower than adult-directed speech (ADS) and mothers prefer placing a focused word in isolation or utterance-final position in (English) IDS, which may benefit word learning. This study investigated the speaking rate and word position of IDS in two typologically-distinct…

Applied linguistics may benefit from a morphological complexity measure to get a better grip on language learning problems and to better understand what kind of typological differences between languages are more important than others in facilitating or impeding adult learning of an additional language. Using speaking proficiency scores of 9,000…

This longitudinal study investigated to what extent the acquisition of cognates among bilingual children depends on the degree of cross-language similarity and intensity of exposure to the tested language, and whether children's sensitivity to cognates with different degrees of cross-language similarity changes over time. For three consecutive…

This research examined the preference for identity-first language (IFL) versus person-first language (PFL) among 215 respondents (M[subscript age] = 30.24 years, SD = 9.92) from the Dutch autism community. We found that a stronger identification with the autism community and a later age of diagnosis predicted a stronger IFL preference and a weaker…

By exploring two novel concepts, "heritage language anxiety" (HLA) and "majority language anxiety" (MLA), this study draws attention to the hitherto neglected topic of "language anxiety" in immigrant and minority contexts. Based on semi-structured interviews with three generations of Turkish immigrants in the…

Previous research on the effects of word-level factors on lexical acquisition has shown that frequency and concreteness are most important. Here, we investigate CDI data from 1,030 Dutch children, collected with the short form of the Dutch CDI, to address (i) how word-level factors predict lexical acquisition, once child-level factors are…

The language used to refer to autism has been a topic of ongoing debate. Research in English-speaking countries indicated an overall preference for identity-first language ('autistic person') among autistic adults rather than person-first language ('person with autism'). We examined terminology preference in Dutch autistic adults (n = 1026; 16-84…

Production studies show connective acquisition by age 3;0, but comprehension studies show errors until 9;0 or older. To further investigate this gap, two comprehension tasks were carried out with 78 Dutch children between the ages of 7;0 and 10;1, testing contrastive "maar" 'but' and causal "want" 'because' connectives for…

Purpose: The purpose of this meta-analytic study was to identify clinical characteristics, defined as child factors that can be assessed by a speech-language pathologist as part of a routine speech-language evaluation that may differentiate children who persist in stuttering from children who eventually recover from stuttering. Clinical…

This study argues that the pattern and timing of ordinal acquisition differs substantially from that of cardinals and is influenced by different language-specific factors, such as (ir)regular ordinal morphology, superlative morphology, and the singular-plural distinction. We discuss data from a Give X task (Wynn 1992) administered to 77 Dutch…

This study investigates the pitch properties of infant-directed speech (IDS) specific to word-learning contexts in which mothers introduce unfamiliar words to children. Using a semi-spontaneous story-book telling task, we examined (1) whether mothers made distinctions between unfamiliar and familiar words with pitch in IDS compared to…

Purpose: Many children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have weaknesses in executive functioning (EF), specifically in tasks testing interference control and working memory. It is unknown how EF develops in children with DLD, if EF abilities are related to DLD severity and persistence, and if EF weaknesses expand to selective attention.…

This study assessed the psychometric properties of the Dutch translation of the Prosocial Behavior Questionnaire (PBQ-NL), a self-report questionnaire that distinguishes altruistic, reactive, and proactive prosocial behaviours. Participants were 381 Dutch adolescents and young adults aged 13-30 (M[subscript age] = 18.62, SD = 2.59, 65.1% female).…