Language Development and Symbolic Play in Children With and Without Familial Risk for Dyslexia

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to investigate (a) whether children in families with a positive history of dyslexia were more likely to show delays in language development than children without family risk and (b) whether a delayed onset of expressive language (late talking) predicted later language development. We analyzed the language development of 200 children longitudinally at 14, 24, 30, and 42 months and assessed their symbolic play at 14 months. Half of the children (N = 106) were from families with a history of dyslexia (the Dyslexia Risk [DR] group), and other children served as age-matched controls. Parental reports and structured tests were used to assess children's receptive and expressive language and symbolic play. No differences emerged between the two groups in receptive language, symbolic play, or on the Bayley MDI. The groups, however, diverged in expressive language measures. The maximum sentence length at 2 years and object naming and inflectional morphology skills at 3.5 years were higher for the control group than for the DR group. Reynell receptive score at 2.5 years provided the greatest unique contribution to the prediction of the children's receptive and expressive language. Children's risk status did not contribute to receptive language, but provided a significant contribution to their expressive language at 3.5 years, even after the variance associated with parental education and children's previous language skills was controlled. Late talkers in the DR group differed from the other members of the DR group in both receptive and expressive language at 3.5 years, although in the control group children with a late-talking history performed at age-level expectations. The findings suggest that children with a familial risk for dyslexia and with a history of late talking are at higher risk for delays in language acquisition than children without the familial risk for dyslexia.

Adaptive Vocabulary Learning Environment for Late Talkers

“…Late talkers are a group of children who learn to form sentences later and have smaller vocabularies than their more typical peers who start putting words together before turning two (Preston et al, 2010). This early language delay has been connected with a risk of later difficulties in language learning such as dyslexia (Lyytinen et al, 2001;Lyytinen, 2015;Lyytinen et al, 2005). A very recent finding (Lyytinen, 2015) confirmed earlier observation (Lyytinen et al, 2005) reveals that if such an early language delay comprises receptive language, i.e.…”

“…Longitudinal study of dyslexia in (Lyytinen et al, 2001) recognized that late talkers with a familial risk for dyslexia are more likely to have such problems than typical children with the same familial risk.…”

Specific reading disability (dyslexia): what have we learned in the past four decades?

“…Converging evidence has since been reported by several studies of children at high risk of dyslexia before formal schooling begins (Byrne, Fielding-Barnsley, Ashley, & Larsen, 1997;Gallagher, Frith, & Snowling, 2000;Locke et al, 1997;Lyytinen, Poikkeus, Laakso, Eklund, & Lyytinen, 2001;Lefly & Pennington 1996). However, it needs to be borne in mind that this method of recruitment is very different from that used in more conventional group studies that have selected children who fulfill ÔdiscrepancyÕ and other more conventional criteria for reading disability.…”

Early language development in children with a genetic risk of dyslexia

“…Gallagher et al (2000) found (consistent with Scarborough) that preschool syntactic ability was a significant predictor of reading at 8 years. Lyytinen, Poikkeus, Laakso, Eklund, and Lyytinen (2001) reported that maximum sentence length at age two and object naming and inflectional morphology skills at 3;6 years were less well developed in a group of at-risk children compared to normal controls.…”