Language Skills in Cypriot-Greek Speaking Toddlers with Specific Language Delay

Abstract

Th e current investigation examined longitudinally the emergence of specifi c linguistic parameters in toddlers with and without late onset of expressive language. Th e central aim of this investigation was to compare the linguistic skills of typically developing and late-talking toddlers while: (a) observing patterns of linguistic development between the two groups on specifi c parameters and (b) examining the impact of early language delay on language-specifi c parameters and comparing these with cross-linguistic data. Th e subjects were 18 Cypriot-Greek speaking toddlers classifi ed as late-talkers (LTs), and 18 age-matched counterparts with normal course of language development (NLDs). Participants were assessed at 28 months, 32 months, and 36 months, using various linguistic measures such as receptive and expressive vocabulary, mean length of utterance as measured in words (MLU-W), and phonetic production. Overall, the two groups exhibited parallel developmental profi les, with a language lag favoring the LT group as compared to the NLD counterpart. Th e results of this study highlight the negative eff ect of early language delay on later language skills, even up to age three years and lend support to the current literature regarding the universal linguistic picture of early and persistent language delay. Finally, the fi ndings are discussed in view of the need for further research with a focus on more language sensitive tools in testing later language outcomes.

Mean Length of Utterance in Cypriot Greek-speaking Children

“…One of the objectives of this study was to find the mlu-w of typically developing cyg-speaking children for the ages of 36, 40, 44, and 48 months and subsequently, to look at whether age and gender influenced mlu-w. To date, there are few published works pertaining to younger monolingual cyg-speaking children at 28 to 36 months of age (Petinou et al, 2011) or to monolingual Greekspeaking children for the age range 1:7 to 2:8 years (Marinis, 2003), thus it is difficult to compare the outcomes of the study with those from extant research results.…”

“…Recently, Petinou et al (2011) examined longitudinally the emergence of various linguistic measures, such as receptive and expressive vocabulary, phonetic production and mlu-w in 18 cyg-speaking children classified as late-talkers and 18 age-matched cyg-speaking children with typical course of language development. Participants were assessed at 28, 32 and 36 months.…”

“…Overall, this is a valuable index that is widely relied upon in investigations of children's language development. Some suggested uses for mlu-w include: determining the stage of language development (Laing and Kamhi, 2003); identifying language impairment (Petinou et al, 2011); guiding further language assessment, and, measuring change in language production (Paul, 2007). Numerous researchers have suggested mlu-w as an alternative and supportive language tool which can be used alongside standardized language ones (Craig and Washington, 2000;Costanza-Smith, 2010;Yoder et al, 2011).…”

Dynamic Linguistic Interconnectedness and Variability in Toddlers

“…A "pass" or "fail" score was based on the child's performance on 18 non-verbal tasks within the age bracket of 23-28 months. The 80% (correct performance of 14 out of the 18 items) was used as the cut-off point required for a "passing profile" set by the examiners according z-score transformation of raw data performance Petinou et al (2011). Some of the nonverbal items included the completion of a 5-piece puzzle, the building of a six-block tower, the matching of wooden blocks for shapes and colours, and symbolic play schemes.…”

“…Finally, the development of the lexicon has recently been studied extensively through parental feedback on the CG CDI by Taxitari et al (2017). Petinou et al (2011) studied all three language skills (phonological, lexical and grammatical) longitudinally in TDs and late talkers in their third year. However, the focus of the study was the comparison between TDs and LTs, so the three language skills were not compared directly to each other.…”