Production of grammatical morphemes was examined in free speech samples from 34 4-year-olds with history of slow expressive language development (SELD) and control group. Both the SELD children who had caught up in mean length of utterance by age four and those who had not had acquired fewer grammatical morphemes than controls, though acquisition…

Twenty-one apparently normal children (ages 18 to 34 months) with slow expressive language acquisition were evaluated initially and again at age 3. The late talkers also scored significantly lower in receptive communication and socialization. Followup showed nearly half the group remained delayed in expressive communication and socialization,…

This longitudinal study assessed the narrative language development of primary grade children with slow expressive language development (SELD) as toddlers who either had or had not moved into the normal range of expressive language by early school age. Deficits in narrative skills tended to disappear in children with a history of SELD, though…

This study of 44 late-talking and normally speaking toddlers with and without histories of middle ear involvement revealed no differences in expressive language outcome attributed to history of middle ear involvement. There seemed to be intergroup differences in outcome on measures of articulation that were associated with history of middle ear…

This study found that the speech of mothers (n=28) of toddlers slow to acquire expressive language tended to differ only in the frequency of use of lexical contingency devices (specifically expansion and extension of child speech), when compared to mothers of normally speaking toddlers. (Author/DB)

Twenty-eight toddlers with slow expressive language development were compared to normally speaking age-mates and found to show delayed rather than deviant development in the average level of complexity of their syllable structures, the number of different consonant phonemes produced, and the percentage of consonants correctly produced in…

Thirty-six children identified with small expressive vocabularies at age 20-34 months were followed up yearly and tested for expressive language skills in second grade. Of 10 possible predictor variables, only socioeconomic status and early expressive language skills predicted expressive language outcome in second grade with a slight contribution…

This study used several measures to compare 40 toddlers with delays in expressive language and 40 children acquiring language normally. Findings indicated that children with small expressive vocabularies at 2 years of age are not different from their normally speaking peers in terms of hearing, history of ear infections, birth order, or pre- or…

Toddlers with slow expressive language development were compared on three global measures of phonological behavior to age-mates with normal speech development. The measures were the average level of complexity of syllable structures, the number of different consonant phonemes produced, and the percentage of consonants correctly produced in…