Spinal Muscular Atrophy is a genetic, degenerative disorder, in which individuals become unable to engage in typical motor activities, including speech. The outcome for the most common type of SMA (Type 1), has previously been death before the age of 2, but new medical improvements are showing promising results for life longevity. Research has…

Background: Early and effective treatment for children with developmental language disorder (DLD) is important. Although a growing body of research shows the effects of interventions at the group level, clinicians observe large individual differences in language growth, and differences in outcomes across language domains. A systematic…

Purpose: The present study examined the nature of the effects (direct or indirect) of vocabulary, phonological and morphological awareness on early reading skills in the consistent Greek orthography by testing a unifying model of early reading development in a sample of 141 first-grade children. Method: Vocabulary, phonological and morphological…

Background: We discuss a free software system (Computerized Language Analysis [CLAN]) that can enable fast, thorough, and informative language sample analysis (LSA). Method: We describe methods for eliciting, transcribing, analyzing, and interpreting language samples. Using a hypothetical child speaker, we illustrate use KidEval to generate a…

It is increasingly prevalent in digital learning and teaching strategies for discerning a global perspective on creating the student learning experience. Multimodality is an emergent phenomenon that may influence how digital learning is designed, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic in which immersive learning environments, such as a virtual…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to document whether mean length of utterance[subscript SUGAR] (MLU[subscript S]), total number of words (TNW), clauses per sentence (CPS), and/or words per sentence (WPS) demonstrated age-related changes in children with typically developing language, aged 7;0-10;11 (years;months). Method: Participants were…

International assessments show that 20% of adolescents cannot read simple texts with understanding. Despite this, research has focused on early reading in childhood and skilled reading in adulthood, neglecting reading development during adolescence. We report a longitudinal study assessing reading and vocabulary development at 12, 13 and 14 years…

While we know that interventions targeting oral language can be effective, little is known about what drives these effects. In this study, we examine whether gains in transfer measures are mediated through the specific words that are trained in a language intervention. Based on a large-scale randomized controlled trial of language intervention in…

Background: Early detection and remediation of language disorders are important in helping children to establish appropriate communicative and social behaviour and acquire additional information about the world through the use of language. In the Netherlands, children with (a suspicion of) language disorders are referred to speech and hearing…

Aggression observed in early childhood is considered to be an important problem. Multiple factors may play a decisive role in children's aggressive behaviors. The aim of this study was to examine whether the receptive and expressive language skills of preschool children (39-75 months-old) had predictive role on the levels of physical and…

The authors used an alternating treatment, single-case design to determine the effect of dialogic reading, modeling, and dialogic reading plus modeling on the expressive vocabulary identification of 2 preschool children identified with autism spectrum disorder. Their preschool teacher implemented each of the conditions within the daily routines of…

Prior work has found links between consistency in toddler handedness for the fine motor skill role-differentiated bimanual manipulation (RDBM), and language development at 2 and 3 years of age. The current study investigated whether consistency in handedness from 18 to 24 months (N = 90) for RDBM predicts receptive and expressive language…

Children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) and born to hearing parents have delays in their social-cognitive development and in particular in their theory of mind (ToM). These delays are often attributed to the difficulties they encounter in acquiring age-appropriate linguistic and communicative skills. The present study asks whether this…

Background: Modifying intensity is one approach to tailoring intervention to meet the needs of learners with developmental disabilities. This study examined the effects of varying intensity levels of a behaviour analytic intervention on the efficiency of acquisition and task persistence in young children with Down syndrome. Methods: Using adapted…

Purpose: We examined associations between vocal communication with canonical syllables and expressive language and then examined 2 potential alternative explanations for such associations. Method: Specifically, we tested whether the associations remained when excluding canonical syllables in identifiable words and controlling for the number of…