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Reading books boosts child language

A new study provides more evidence that reading books to young children and helping them visually to follow the story improves a child's language.

Research

Impact of ventilation tube insertion on long-term language outcomes at 6 and 10 years of age: A prospective pregnancy cohort study

Investigating the impact of early childhood ventilation tube insertion (VTI) on long-term language outcomes. 

Research

Prenatal, perinatal, and neonatal risk factors for specific language impairment: A prospective pregnancy cohort study

Although genetic factors are known to play a causal role in specific language impairment (SLI), environmental factors may also be important. This study...

Research

Early development of emerging and English-proficient bilingual children at school entry in an Australian population cohort

Children who enter school with limited proficiency in the language of instruction face a range of challenges in negotiating this new context, yet limited...

Research

Do Children with Specific Language Impairment have a Cognitive Profile Reminiscent of Autism? A Review of the Literature

This paper reviews relevant literature on whether individuals with SLI exhibit cognitive characteristics reminiscent of autism.

Research

The oral and written narrative language skills of adolescent students in youth detention and the impact of language disorder

Unmet language and literacy needs are common among young people who are involved with youth justice systems. However, there is limited research regarding the functional text-level language skills of this population with regard to narrative macrostructure (story grammar) and microstructure (semantics and syntax) elements. In this study, we examined macrostructure and microstructure elements in the oral and written narrative texts of 24 adolescent students of a youth detention centre. The students, who were aged 14- to 17- years, were all speakers of Standard Australian English, and 11 (46%) students met criteria for language disorder (LD).

Research

Sex-specific associations between umbilical cord blood testosterone levels and language delay in early childhood

Preliminary evidence suggests that prenatal testosterone exposure may be associated with language delay. However, no study has examined a large sample of...

Research

Early vocabulary development: The importance of joint attention and parent-child book reading

The current study brought a bioecological approach to children’s early vocabulary development using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children...