Journal References

My three articles can be found in the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research and written throughout the year 2007. The first two were interested in finding correlations and causations with small children with late language development, and the last one is interested in finding the differences between typically developing and late language children and how they interpret language.

The first article wanted to see if there was a correlation between language delay and behavior problems in toddlers. There wasn't really any strong corrections, especially after they took out the cases where the child had symptoms of autism, with the exception of late language development and Withdrawal, which can be explained by children that have expressive language issues are more likely to shy away from social activities.

As a child who developed later than normal language-wise up through kindergarten, I did keep to myself, but I also was seperated by my poor vision, a unquieness that I was way more self-conscious about than my random, if recurring, moments of awkward communication.

Reference: Rescorla, L, and GS Ross, and S McClure. "Language delay and behavioral/emotional problems in toddlers: findings from two developmental clinics". Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research. Aug 2007, 1063-78.

The second article was a more general look into the possible causes and correlations that can be found in children with Late Language Development (LDD). They looked from a large sample of Austrailian children and looked at a variety of factors, focusing on maternal background and family environment. There were some interesting findings, including that the economic level of the mother does not predict LDD in children, but the type of parental behavior, the existence of siblings, family history, and whether the child is male does. They also are leaning towards genetic and neurobiological factors determining a child's language development.

The article references birth weight and Apgar scores a couple of times, and according to this article the connection to low birth rate and language development is inconsistent. I wasn't premature but I was a lightweight baby, around 5lbs 6oz. I have a brother, but I'm the oldest child, and this article believes younger siblings are more likely to be affected by LDD; my overall behavior is overall inconsistent with the typical behaviors of the oldest child.

Reference: Zubrick, Stephen R, and Catherine L. Taylor. Late language emergence at 24 months: epidemiological study of prevalence, predictions, and covariates. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Dec 2007. 1562-92.

The third article went to compare lexical and grammatical development between late language development and typically developing children. They hypothesize that both normal and late developing children develop the same in lexical growth but will see differences in syntactic development. The findings varied, some supporting the original hypothesis and some less so. They were also trying to see whether children develop language through bidirectional bootstrapping.

References: Moyle MJ, SE Weismer, JL Evans, MJ Lindstrom. Longitudinal relationships between lexical and grammatical development in typical and late-talking children. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research. April 2007. 508-28.