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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMedDate not supplied

Influences of hearing impairment on early language development.

It is difficult to determine exactly the effects of chronic otitis media on early language development, in part because we do not know whether hearing loss resulting from otitis media is intermittent or constant, and in part because it is difficult to assess the precise language ability of very young children. This paper focuses on those aspects of language development which one might expect hearing impairment to affect, and presents several hypotheses about the possible effects of mild-to-moderate hearing loss on the earliest stages of language development.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Design factors in the assessment of language development in children with otitis media.

In this paper the findings of studies which have examined the effects of chronic otitis media, suffered during the early years of life, on the cognitive, linguistic and academic development of the child are reviewed and critqued. A summary of findings on factors which play a role in normal language development are then presented to point to possible reasons for chronic otitis media having detrimental effects on development. Finally, possible ways of testing the hypothesis that the disease has such effects are discussed.

Child Language↗
PubMed1978

Receptive language development in preterm children as related to caregiver-child interaction.

Fifty preterm children who had experienced a range of biological hazards were divided into two competence groups on the basis of their receptive language development at 24 months. The groups were then compared in terms of the kinds of caregiver-child interactions the children and their primary caregivers engaged in three months earlier in a laboratory assessment. The two language skill groups did not differ on perinatal factors such as birth weight and gestational age, or on length of hospitalization, but did differ in social transactions. The more competent group as compared to the less competent group had caregivers who were more stimulating, the children themselves emitted more vocalization, and the caregivers and children engaged in more reciprocal social transactions.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed2026

Effectiveness of Caregiver-Mediated Spoken Language Interventions for Children Under Five at Risk of Developmental Language Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Caregiver-mediated interventions are commonly used by Speech and Language Therapists to support early language development. Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is associated with reduced quality of life throughout the lifespan. Understanding factors that predict intervention success is essential for developing appropriate, cost-effective therapy provision for the approximately 12% of preschool children who present with early markers for Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). This systematic review and meta-analysis examined the effectiveness of caregiver-mediated spoken language interventions for under-fives at risk of DLD, and factors influencing intervention effectiveness. METHODS: A systematic review following PRISMA guidelines was conducted. Five electronic databases were searched to identify experimental studies comparing caregiver-mediated spoken language interventions to control conditions in under-fives presenting with risk factors for DLD. Risk factors included prematurity, socioeconomic factors, caregiver language development concerns, and formal or informal language screening or assessment scores. Twenty-six experimental studies with 1407 child participants were included in qualitative synthesis. Meta-analysis was performed on nine Randomised Controlled Trials involving 947 children. RESULTS: Effectiveness was examined for outcomes including child language gains, child wellbeing, inclusion and attainment. Meta-analysis indicated a significant effect of caregiver-mediated spoken language interventions on language outcomes compared to treatment-as-usual, non-language intervention or waitlist control conditions. Non-language outcomes were evaluated via qualitative synthesis. Interventions significantly improved language development trajectories for under-fives presenting with risk factors or early markers for DLD. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: This review contributes to the growing evidence base demonstrating that caregiver-mediated interventions can positively impact language development and wellbeing outcomes for children under five at risk of DLD. These findings support the implementation of caregiver-mediated environmental language interventions in clinical practice to maximise accessibility and cost-effectiveness while delivering optimal outcomes for vulnerable populations. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: What is already known on this subject Previous research on caregiver-mediated spoken language interventions has highlighted gaps in the evidence regarding the impact of risk factors, demographic characteristics, dosage and intervention components on child language outcomes. Developmental Language Disorder has relatively high population prevalence, estimated at 7%. Prevalence is associated with risk factors including low household socioeconomic status (SES), prematurity and late language emergence. In contrast to its prevalence, there is low public and professional awareness of DLD and a low diagnostic rate. Therefore, a strengthened evidence base and additional insights into the factors affecting success of family-based interventions is important in order to increase the effectiveness of service provision and care planning for this underserved population. Timely and effective intervention with young children presenting with early markers for DLD has the potential to offer lifelong improvement to their wellbeing, inclusion and attainment outcomes. Recent systematic reviews of the effectiveness of caregiver-mediated language interventions had differences in population age range and diagnostic inclusion criteria. What this paper adds to existing knowledge Our review examines the effectiveness of caregiver-mediated early spoken language interventions on child language, attainment and wellbeing, and on caregiver self-efficacy and adherence to language support strategies. Our population was children under five presenting with risk factors for Developmental Language Disorder, in the absence of other neurodevelopmental or genetic conditions such as intellectual disability or autism. This review adds depth and detail to the evidence base supporting the effectiveness of caregiver-mediated spoken language interventions in improving outcomes for this population of young children, and factors that influence their success. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? The high prevalence of Developmental Language Disorder, estimated at around 7% of the population, and the strong association with risk factors including low SES, prematurity and late language emergence, coupled with the low awareness of DLD and low diagnostic rate, mean that a strengthened evidence base and additional insights into the factors affecting success of family-based interventions can increase the effectiveness of service provision and care planning for this population. Timely and effective intervention in this group of young children has the potential to improve wellbeing and attainment outcomes across the lifespan. This review contributes to our understanding of how to implement cost-effective, socially valid and maximally engaging partnership working with families of young children at risk for DLD.

Humans↗
PubMed1979

Relational meaning encoded in the two-word utterances of stage 1 Down's syndrome children.

This study explored the early two-word utterances from four Down's syndrome children to determine if they encode the same relational meanings as children developing language normally. Nine semantic categories were established to classify the subject's two-word constructions. Absolute and proportional frequencies of relational types were then used to analyze the relational meanings. The results reveal that this classification system accounts for a combined 79% of the two-word utterances expressed by these Down's subjects. It is suggested that Down's children demonstrate as much diversity in their use of relational meanings as normals at the same linguistic stage. These findings are discussed with respect to what Down's children know about the world as they begin to produce two-word combinations.

Child↗
PubMedDate not supplied

A study of language skills in severely subnormal children.

A study of 37 severely subnormal children, comparing their language development with their non-verbal ability, is described. The test scores obtained by the 17 children with Down's syndrome were compared with those of the remaining 20 children ("others); a cross-sectional examination of the effects of increasing chronological age was made; and an assessment of speech intelligibility was compared with language scale scores. The results show that the children as a group had a language deficit compared with their non-verbal ability, and that their verbal comprehension tended to be poorer than their expressive language ability. Children with Down's syndrome tended to have inferior language ability through the differences between their scores and those of the "others" were not statistically significant. An association between poor intelligibility of speech and low expressive language scores was demonstrated. The results are discussed in the context of other studies. Possible reasons for the patterns of language development observed are suggested, and the practical implications, particularly the need for careful attention to the language development of severely subnormal children from an early age, are considered.

Child↗
PubMed1978

Maternal speech to normal and Down's syndrome children matched for mean length of utterance.

The study was designed to provide data on the maternal linguistic environments of normal and Down's syndrome children at three levels of language development, as assessed by children's mean length of utterances (MLU). The three MLU levels were 1.00--1.50, 1.75--2.25, and 2.50--3.00, respectively. The subjects were 21 Down's syndrome children and their natural mothers and 21 normal children and their natural mothers. Normal children ranged in chronological age from 20 to 32 months and Down's syndrome children from 3 to 12 years. A one-hour verbal interaction between mother and child was tape recorded at home in a free-play situation. Maternal speech was analyzed using 20 measures related to its output-numerical, lexical, syntactical, semantic-structural, semantic-pragmatic, and language-teaching aspects. Additionally, eight measures of children's speech related to the output-numerical, lexical, syntactical semantic-structural aspects, and to imitativeness of maternal speech were computed as a means of testing the validity of the MLU-matching that forms a basis for this study. Except for the Type-token ratio, which favored Down's syndrome children, normal and Down's syndrome children were not found to differ. In contrast, there were numerous differences between the children in the different aspects of speech considered according to language level. None of the comparisons made of mother's speech to normal and to Down's syndrome children led to differences for any of the three children's language levels studied. It appeared that the maternal linguistic environments of language-learning Down's syndrome and normal children of corresponding MLU were similar in most respects. In contrast, there were numerous differences in mother's speech according to the language level of the children addressed. This confirmed that the expressive language level of the children is a far more powerful factor in influencing maternal speech than whether they are normal or Down's syndrome children. The implications of these findings were related to the delay-difference question in the language development of Down's syndrome children and to various interpretations of the effects of maternal linguistic input for language development and for intervention programs of language enhancement in the Down's syndrome child.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Parental speech to young Down's syndrome children: an intervention study.

Parents with Down's syndrome children who were at the one-two word stage of expressive language development were given a language objective to work towards with their child, but no instructions on how to attain this goal. The parents spontaneously altered their language strategies in their attempts. Some parents were more successful and differed in their strategies, using more target words in shorter "statement" utterances. Parents who used a questioning or imitating strategy were less successful. The less successful parents were then shown how to alter their language strategies more appropriately to produce a greater improvement in their child's use of the target words.

Child↗
PubMed1979

Written language skills of children with cleft palate.

The written language abilities of children with cleft palates aged eight to 13 were studied to compare performance with norms for the Picture Story Language Test. Although intelligence of this sample, as measured by the performance portion of the WISC, was skewed toward the superior and very superior ranges, the group ranked below the 50th percentile in total words used, words per sentence, and syntax quotients. Also, percentile scores on the PSLT declined as the age of the subjects increased. These results differ from the Ebert, McWilliams, and Woolf (1974) study where younger children with cleft palates (ages six to eight) were found to exhibit age-appropriate written language. The influence of factors affecting language development among the cleft palate population, such as methods and success of management, hearing, articulation, intelligence, sex, and psychosocial adjustment needs to be further investigated.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Development of children with early cytomegalovirus infection.

To find out whether cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection during the first months of life influences child development, developmental assessment at the age of 2 years was performed on 116 Finnish children chosen at random in a maternity hospital and followed from birth for the occurrence of CMV infection. Two of the children had congenital infection and 39 were infected after birth but before the age of 6 months. Another five children were infected between the ages of 6 and 12 months, and 70 remained non-infected. The developmental assessment, based principally on the Denver Development Screening Test (DDST), included 7 items for gross motor skills, 6 items for fine motor skills, and 4 items for language development. Significantly more perinatally infected children (7/39) were delayed in speech, compared with the non-infected children (3/70). Furthermore, some items assessing fine motor development were passed better by the non-infected than the perinatally infected children, but the difference in total score was not significant. The performance of the two children with congenital CMV infection did not differ from that of the non-infected children.

Child Development↗
PubMed1975

Benefits to Down's syndrome children through training their mothers.

This study investigated the hypothesis that training of mothers with Down's syndrome children would be beneficial both to the child and parents. The mothers were taught behaviour modification techniques based on learning theory and were given group discussions on dealing with their family or personal problems. The subjects were 16 mothers with a Down's syndrome child, divided into two groups on the basis of their child's sex and chronological and mental ages. The Griffiths Scale was used for assessment. The mothers in the treatment group received 12 sessions of training and group counseling over a 6-month period, whereas the control mothers received no additional attention except the usual routine from the general practitioner and health visitor. The result show clear gains to both the child and mother in the treatment group. The child improved, especially in language development as well as in the other areas, and the mother-gained more confidence and competence in her daily management of the child.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed1976

Developmental transformational capacity of children with Down's syndrome.

This study examined the generative-transformational capacities of two groups of children with Down's Syndrome with mean mental ages of 3,6 yr. and 4,6 yr. respectively. A sentence repetition task was used to assess their knowledge of selected transformational sentence types (simple-active-affirmative-declarative, question, negative, passive and negative-passive). There were significant effects of groups and sentence types but a nonsignificant interaction of groups X sentence types. These results were taken as support for Lenneberg's "slow motion" hypothesis of language development in mentally retarded children. Children with Down's Syndrome appear to follow the same patterns of grammatical acquisition as normal children but at a reduced rate associated with the severity of their retardation.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed2025

Deleterious, protein-altering variants in GSPT2 are putatively associated with an X-linked neurodevelopmental disorder with intellectual disability, language impairment, autism, and epilepsy.

PURPOSE: Approximately 6% of individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders are predicted to be X-linked, and the GSPT2 gene, located at Xp11.22, has not yet been associated with any Mendelian disease. METHODS: To establish genotype-phenotype associations between GSPT2 and neurodevelopmental disorders, clinical investigations were performed in unrelated individuals, genomic and functional studies were conducted on the participants' blood and heterologous cell system. RESULTS: We described 6 individuals from 6 unrelated families carrying hemizygous variants in GSPT2 with intellectual disability, delayed speech and language development, autism spectrum disorder, epilepsy, or abnormal fetal neurodevelopment. Structural molecular modeling revealed significant deleterious effects of the identified variants. GSPT2 is preferentially enriched in the brain and cerebellum compared with other tissues. GSPT2-deficient H4 neuroglioma cells slow down the proliferation and downregulate the expression of cell-cycle-related genes. Transcriptomics revealed that GABAergic and calcium-signaling-related genes were significantly downregulated in GSPT2-deficient cells. Consistent with the transcriptomic data, RT-PCR analysis verified the marked downregulation of critical genes (CACNA1B, etc) in GSPT2-knockout cells and further confirmed these findings with proteomic profiling. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest a putative GSPT2-related X-linked neurodevelopmental disorders through dysregulation of cell-cycle progression and calcium/GABAergic signaling pathways.

Humans↗