Developmental trajectories of early communication skills.
OBJECTIVE
This study focused on developmental trajectories of prelinguistic communication skills and their connections to later parent-reported language difficulties.


METHODS
The participants represent a subset of a community-based sample of 508 children. Data include parent reports of prelinguistic communication skills at 12, 15, 18, and 21 months and language difficulties at age 4;7 (years;months). The authors used latent profile analysis to identify groups of children with differing developmental trajectories of prelinguistic communication skills (  n = 271). The relations among these groups and follow-up data of parent-reported concerns of language development (  n = 187), as well as the role of gender, were examined.


RESULTS
Six meaningful prelinguistic communication groups were identified with the latent profile analysis, and these groups showed connections to later parent-reported concerns of language difficulties. Delayed early expressive language and a minor delay of overall performance, together with symbolic difficulties, appeared as predictors of later language difficulties. Nearly 80% of the children whose parents reported language-related concerns at the follow-up stage could already be identified before their 2nd birthday.


CONCLUSIONS
The results support the potential of early screening in identifying children at risk of developing language difficulties, particularly when screening includes repeated surveillance of more than one area of communication skills.
Niilo Mäki Institute, Jyväskylä, Finland. sira.maatta@nmi.fi
Sira
S
Määttä
Marja-Leena
ML
Laakso
Asko
A
Tolvanen
Timo
T
Ahonen
Tuija
T
Aro
D002657:Child Development; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007807:Language Tests; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests