A new study looking at the receptive language development of young children has highlighted the need for kids to be monitored over time to ensure they don't fall behind.
New research from The Kids Research Institute Australia, published in online journal PLOS ONE, has revealed a high degree of variability of receptive language development in young children between the ages of 4 to 8.
Receptive language is the ability to derive meaning from words and builds the foundation for language acquisition and literacy. Low receptive language ability is a risk factor for under-achievement at school.
The study, which looked at the receptive language of 3847 children from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), challenges previous thinking that children's language development is stable and predictable.
"What this latest research shows is that children's language development is so variable that it is very difficult to accurately predict whether all children with language problems at age 4 will go on to have them at age 8. Likewise we cannot say that children with good language skills at age 4 won't fall behind in the later years," says the study's Lead Author Daniel Christensen.
"Children can start out behind and catch-up, but also start out ahead and fall behind so we believe that ongoing monitoring of children's receptive language development may be a more effective tool than one-off screening to determine how kids language is developing," says Mr Christensen.
"For parents and educators the research is important. On one hand it will provide comfort to parents to know that language variability is a normal part of growing up, on the other hand it reinforces that ongoing monitoring of language development is essential over time for all children, whether they show early signs of language impairment or not."
The study investigated risk factors influencing receptive language development and found that fetal growth restriction, low maternal education and socio-economic disadvantage may be contributors to poorer language development but were not strong predictors of it.
"Knowing which risk factors a child is exposed to does not mean we to know which children go on to have low language. In other words the data showed that kids with lower levels of receptive language development may have some of these influencing factors but they could not be clearly identified as causes of it" said Mr Christensen.
Further research is now needed to see how kids exposed to some of these risk factors develop from childhood to adolescence.
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Citation: Christensen, D. Zubrick, S.R. Lawrence, D. Mitrou, F. Taylor, CL. Risk factors for low receptive vocabulary abilities in the preschool and early school years in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. PLOS ONE 10.1371/journal.pone.0101476
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About LSAC
Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) is a major study following the development of 10,000 children and families from all parts of Australia. The study commenced in 2004 with two cohorts - families with 4-5 year old children and families with 0-1 year old infants. Growing Up in Australia is investigating the contribution of children's social, economic and cultural environments to their adjustment and wellbeing. A major aim is to identify policy opportunities for improving support for children and their families and for early intervention and prevention strategies.