Maltreated children's language and speech development: abused, neglected, and abused and neglected

Abstract

Seventy-four preschool-age maltreated children's receptive and expressive language, speech skills, general language and cognitive abilities were assessed to investigate the language, speech and cognitive skills of abused, neglected, and abused and neglected children. While all three groups were delayed, neglect was the type of maltreatment most strongly associated with both expressive and receptive language delays and overall language delay. The three groups did not differ in general cognitive development. The most important feature of our data, relative to a Vygotskian perpective, is that language development is particularly vulnerable in an environment devoid of parent-child social language exchange.

Children neglected: Where cumulative risk theory fails

“…Another study assessed language development in 74 maltreated preschoolers, comparing those neglected only, physically abused, or both neglected and physically abused (Culp et al, 1991). Their results showed that children only neglected performed significantly worse on language assessment than those physically abused or both neglected and physically abused.…”

Child maltreatment, mental health and oral language competence: Inviting speech-language pathology to the prevention table

“…Neuropsychological studies link childhood neglect with particularly adverse outcomes in relation to auditory attention, verbal comprehension, performance on verbal and nonverbal subtests of IQ batteries, and mental inflexibility (see Nolin & Ethier, 2007, for review). Specific linguistic sequelae have also been described (e.g., by Coster & Cicchetti, 1993;Culp et al, 1991;McFadyen & Kitson, 1996) in sub-populations of maltreated children. Deficits described include delayed syntactic development, reduced vocabulary size, poor auditory comprehension skills and pragmatic impairments.…”

Complex Trauma in Children and Adolescents

“…Ultimately, a history of childhood traumatic experiences raises the risk for adverse outcomes, including substance use and abuse, teen pregnancy and paternity, suicidality and other self-injurious behaviors, criminal activity, and re-victimization (Anda, 2002 (Egeland, Sroufe, & Erickson, 1983). The sensory and emotional deprivation associated with neglect appears to be particularly detrimental to development, with neglected infants and toddlers demonstrating delays in expressive and receptive language development, as well as deficits in overall IQ (Allen & Oliver, 1982;Culp, Watkins, Lawrence, Letts et al, 1991;Vondra, Barnett, & Cicchetti, 1990). Over time, these decrements in cognitive ability continue to be observed, such that abused and neglected children show lower IQ's and are disproportionately represented within the developmentally delayed spectrum of intellectual functioning (Sandgrund, Gaines, & Green, 1974).…”