Do late-talking toddlers turn out to have reading difficulties a decade later?
Language and reading outcomes at age 13 were examined in a sample of 22 children who were late talkers as toddlers. The late talkers, all of whom had normal nonverbal ability and age-adequate receptive language at intake (24-to-31 months), were compared to a group of 14 typically developing children similar at intake on age, SES, and nonverbal ability. Late talkers had significantly poorer vocabulary, grammar, reading/spelling, and verbal memory skills at age 13, although as a group, they generally performed in the average range on most language and academic tasks. The findings suggest that slow early language development reflects a predisposition for slower acquisition and lower asymptotic performance in a wide range of language-related skills into adolescence.
Rescorla
L
L
Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania 19010, USA. lrescorl@brynmawr.edu
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading; D014888:Wechsler Scales