This study investigates the influence of semantic maturation on early lexical development by examining the impact of contextual diversity--known to influence semantic development--on word promotion from receptive to productive vocabularies (i.e., comprehension-expression gap). Study 1 compares the vocabularies of 3685 American-English-speaking…

Studies have reported an inverse association between language development and behavioral inhibition or shyness across childhood, but the direction of this association remains unclear. This study tested alternative hypotheses regarding this association in a large sample of toddlers. Data on behavioral inhibition and expressive and receptive…

Relations among indices of maternal mind-mindedness (appropriate and nonattuned mind-related comments) and children's: (a) internal state vocabulary and perspectival symbolic play at 26 months ("N" = 206), and (b) theory of mind (ToM) at 51 months ("n" = 161) were investigated. Appropriate comments were positively…

Retrospective studies indicate 2 major classes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) onset: early and later, after a period of relatively healthy development. This prospective, longitudinal study examined social, language, and motor trajectories in 235 children with and without a sibling with autism, ages 6-36 months. Children were grouped as: ASD…

In a prospective study of developmental outcomes in relation to early-life otitis media, behavioral, cognitive, and language measures were administered to a large, diverse sample of children at 2, 3, 4, 6, and 9-11 years of age (N = 741). At 9-11 years of age, 9% of the children were categorized as having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder…