Prespeech and early speech development of two late talkers

Abstract

Speech samples of 34 children were analysed to determine patterns of babbling and early word productions from 9 to 24 months. The present study focuses on the vocal and verbal development of two 'late talkers' in the group who did not meet the criterion for achieving the Meaningful Speech Stage until 24 months. Analysis of these subjects' prespeech utterances revealed that one of them produced few canonical babbles from 9 to 21 months; the other displayed an unusual pattern of sound preference in his babbles. At 24 months, word productions of both late talkers evidenced more limited phonetic repertoires and simpler syllable shapes than those used by their peers. These findings suggest that atypical babbling may be associated with delays in the acquisition of meaningful speech.

Variation in Vocal-Motor Development in Infant Siblings of Children with Autism

“…This result is not surprising in light of the prevalence of delayed reduplicated babble in the group and the fact that delayed babble has been shown to relate to delayed language (e.g., Oller, Eilers, Neal, & Schwartz, 1999;Stoel-Gammon, 1989). It is also very much in line with other recent studies of Infant Siblings in the second and third years that have reported delays in language using both standardized and parent report measures (Mitchell et al, 2006;Yirmiya et al, 2006a;Yirmiya et al, 2006b;Zwaigenbaum et al, 2005).…”

“…While this may sound like a task for the specialist, Oller and colleagues (Oller, Eilers, Neal, & Cobo-Lewis, 1998;Oller et al, 1999) have demonstrated that if interviewed appropriately, caregivers can be remarkably accurate reporters of babble onset and production by their infants. This may be a useful procedure to incorporate into surveillance visits for very young Infant Siblings, as the absence of babble by 10 months is considered to be a moderately sensitive index of risk for later language delay and developmental disorder (Oller et al, 1998(Oller et al, , 1999Stoel-Gammon, 1989). …”

“…Since delays in motor milestone onset are evident in children at-risk for developmental delays (e.g., gestational age less than 32 weeks, term asphyxia; Piper & Darrah, 1994) and delays in the onset of reduplicated babble and in language abilities in the second year are also present in children at risk for later non-ASD language and communication disorders (e.g., Oller et al, 1999;Stoel-Gammon, 1989), the question of specificity is an important one, and it is one to which we return below.…”

Automated vocal analysis of naturalistic recordings from children with autism, language delay, and typical development

“…Developmental tracking of these features by automated means at massive scales could add a major new component to language acquisition research. Given their infrastructural character, anomalies in development of rhythmic/syllabic articulation and voice might also suggest an emergent disorder (17,18).…”

Babbling and first words in children with slow expressive development

“…It has often been hypothesized that the first speech-like articulation and the babbling phase, which occur at approximately 10 months of age, allow infants to develop a link between articulatory settings and the resulting auditory consequences, thus laying down the basis for the development of the phonetic inventory and adaptation to the ambient language (Westermann and Miranda, 2004). Several longitudinal studies, conducted on different populations and using different modes of analysis, indicated a continuity between prelinguistic production (babbling) and first words both in typically developing children (Bates, Benigni, Bretherton, Camaioni and Volterra, 1979;Leonard and Bortolini, 1998;Locke, 1989;Oller, Eilers, Neal and Schwartz, 1999;Vihman and McCune, 1994) and in children with language delay (D'Odorico, Bortolini, De Gasperi and Assanelli, 1999;Oller, Eilers, Neal and Cobo-Lewis, 1998;Rescorla, Dahlsgaard and Roberts, 2000;Stoel-Gammon, 1989).…”