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Research

The education word gap emerges by 18 months: findings from an Australian prospective study

The idea of the '30 million word gap' suggests families from more socioeconomically advantaged backgrounds engage in more verbal interactions with their child than disadvantaged families. Initial findings from the Language in Little Ones (LiLO) study up to 12 months showed no word gap between maternal education groups.

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The oral and written narrative language skills of adolescent students in youth detention and the impact of language disorder

Unmet language and literacy needs are common among young people who are involved with youth justice systems. However, there is limited research regarding the functional text-level language skills of this population with regard to narrative macrostructure (story grammar) and microstructure (semantics and syntax) elements. In this study, we examined macrostructure and microstructure elements in the oral and written narrative texts of 24 adolescent students of a youth detention centre. The students, who were aged 14- to 17- years, were all speakers of Standard Australian English, and 11 (46%) students met criteria for language disorder (LD).

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Aspects of speech-language abilities are influenced by MECP2 mutation type in girls with Rett syndrome

This study investigates relationships between methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 gene (MECP2) mutation type and speech-language abilities in girls with Rett syndrome.

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Do Children with Specific Language Impairment have a Cognitive Profile Reminiscent of Autism? A Review of the Literature

This paper reviews relevant literature on whether individuals with SLI exhibit cognitive characteristics reminiscent of autism.

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Evidence for shared deficits in identifying emotions from faces and from voices in autism spectrum disorders and specific language impairment

While autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and specific language impairment (SLI) have traditionally been conceptualized as distinct disorders, recent findings...

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Sex-specific associations between umbilical cord blood testosterone levels and language delay in early childhood

Preliminary evidence suggests that prenatal testosterone exposure may be associated with language delay. However, no study has examined a large sample of...

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Early vocabulary development: The importance of joint attention and parent-child book reading

The current study brought a bioecological approach to children’s early vocabulary development using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children...

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Early development of emerging and English-proficient bilingual children at school entry in an Australian population cohort

Children who enter school with limited proficiency in the language of instruction face a range of challenges in negotiating this new context, yet limited...

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Prenatal, perinatal, and neonatal risk factors for specific language impairment: A prospective pregnancy cohort study

Although genetic factors are known to play a causal role in specific language impairment (SLI), environmental factors may also be important. This study...

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Late-talking and risk for behavioral and emotional problems during childhood and adolescence

Although many toddlers with expressive vocabulary delay ("late talkers") present with age-appropriate language skills by the time they are of school age,...