title: Relationship between social interaction bids and language in late talking children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between language development and the frequency of social interaction (SI) behaviours during language acquisition in late-talking (LT) children who exhibit delays in expressive vocabulary development but have age-appropriate cognitive skills.
  
  
  METHODS
  The research consists of a longitudinal study with a first test followed by two re-tests 5 months apart, in which LT children were compared to 5-months-younger typically-developing (TD) children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Data showed that LT children performed significantly fewer initiation of SI behaviours, but no differences between groups in responding to SI behaviours were observed. Furthermore, LT children who have lower language comprehension scores initiate social interaction more frequently.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results showed that LT children seem to be less active in starting social interaction and participation, but, once they get involved, they respond similarly to TD children of comparable expressive language competence. Additionally, the correlation pattern between the frequency of SI behaviours and language functions showed that LT toddlers with more prominent receptive language delay are more interested in initiating interaction with their partner, thus suggesting that they need a partner's "scaffolding" to overcome this lack.
authors: a Institute of Medical Research, University of Belgrade, Psychology , Novi Pazar , Serbia.
authors: Jasmina R
authors: JR
authors: Vuksanovic
keywords: Children; late talkers; social interaction