Continuity of lexical, grammatical, phonetic and phonological development in German late talkers – A longitudinal study

Abstract

Late Talkers (= LTs) are identified at the age of two on the basis of their restricted language skills regarding expressive lexicon and are at risk for Specific Language Impairment (= SLI). SLI-children especially show deficits in the area of grammar, but also in the area of phonology. Receptive language, phonetic and phonological abilities are seen as within language predictors for LTs' outcome. This article addresses the question of whether German LTs show heterotypic continuity in (i) expressive lexicon and grammar, i.e. lexical bootstrapping, in (ii) receptive lexicon and receptive-expressive grammar and in (iii) expressive phonology and expressive grammar. Language development of 17 LTs was assessed at three different timepoints over the course of one year. At the age of three 71% of the sample could be classified as children with persistent language delay or SLI. Cross-lagged correlations were conducted with the following results: German LTs show lexical bootstrapping. No significant correlations occured between receptive measures. But there is a heterotypic continuity between expressive phonetic-phonological measures and expressive grammatical measures. It is concluded that expressive lexicon, i.e. lexical bootstrapping, and also expressive phonetics and phonology are prerequisites for development of grammar in German-speaking LTs.

Reciprocal relationships between lexical and syntactic skills of children with Developmental Language Disorder and the role of executive functions

“…Previous research has found that TD children show reciprocal relations between lexical and grammatical development, suggesting bidirectional bootstrapping (Dionne et al, 2003). However, this could be different for children whose language abilities are compromised, as suggested by research on late talkers (Moyle, Weismer, Evans, & Lindstrom, 2007;Schlesiger, 2013). Moyle et al showed that children with TD exhibited patterns consistent with lexical bootstrapping until age 2 years and 6 months (2;6) while patterns consistent with syntactic bootstrapping were observed from age 2;6 until 3;6.…”

Wortschatz in Erzählungen

“…Entwicklungszusammenhänge zwischen expressiven lexikalischen Fähigkeiten und grammatischen Leistungen, die hier grob durch die Äußerungs-länge eingeschätzt wurden, sind für sprachverzögerte und sprachu nauffällige Kinder im 3. Lebensjahr bekannt ( [33,[37][38][39]) und zeigten sich in der vorliegenden Studie auch für Kinder zwischen 3 und 6 Jahren im Kontext des Erzählens. Obwohl die Äußerungen der sprachauffälligen Kinder kürzer waren, enthielten sie ein ähnliches Repertoire an Wortarten, wobei subtile Unterschiede auf eine geringere Qualität der Wortartenkomposition hinweisen: Pronomen, die für die Herstellung textgrammatischer Zusammenhänge, insbesondere für die Wiederaufnahme von eingeführten Referenten notwendig sind, wurden seltener verwendet, während Nomen und personal-soziale Wörter, die typisch für frühe Phasen des Lexikonerwerbs sind, stärker vertreten waren als bei sprachunauffälligen Kindern.…”