Language abilities of 18-month-old Zulu speakers.
The receptive, expressive and pragmatic language abilities of 18-month-old Zulu speakers were assessed in order to obtain preliminary norms. Twenty-five participants of the Birth to Ten cohort study were investigated using parent reports, mother-child and tester-child interactions. Data was transcribed and analysed using nonparametric statistics. Results demonstrated that receptively subjects understood two-part instructions. Expressively, the mean lexicon was 4.12 words and mean length of utterance 0.65. Pragmatically, subjects were functioning on a nonverbal level and exhibited culture-specific items. The results provided information which could enable speech, language and hearing therapists to engage in primary and secondary prevention. An appropriate test battery for these children is discussed.
Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, University of the Witwatersrand.
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Bortz
D002663:Child Language; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007807:Language Tests / Q000592:standards; D008037:Linguistics; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D012016:Reference Values; D013019:South Africa; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires