Sex differences in early communication development: behavioral and neurobiological indicators of more vulnerable communication system development in boys

Perhaps due to different roles they have had in social groups during evolution, men and women differ in their verbal abilities. These differences are also (if not even more) present in children, both in the course of typical and pathological development. Beside the fact that girls have a well-documented advantage in early language development, almost all developmental disorders primarily affecting communication, speech, and language skills are more frequent in boys. The sex-related difference in the prevalence of these disorders is especially pronounced in autism spectrum disorder (1 girl for each 4-5 boys is affected). The aim of this review is to present the sex differences in typical communication and language development and in the prevalence of communication-related neurodevelopmental disorders. Also, a special focus is put on data from the field of neuroscience that might provide insight into the neurobiological mechanisms that can add to the understanding of this phenomenon. We argue that the functional organization of the female brain gives women an inherent advantage in the acquisition of communication and language system over men

“It\u27s not just what we say or do, but how we say and do it”: a review of studies on infant-directed modifications

Infant-directed speech (IDS) and infant-directed actions (IDA) represent specific behavioural modifications of adults when they communicate with infants and young children. Infant-directed modifications (IDMs) have specific behavioural representations marked by high positive affection, greater expressiveness, simplification, and increased repetition. Both IDS and IDA appear as part of the same larger behavioural system of IDMs. However, so far, studies have analysed the features and functions of these behaviours separately. Compared to adult-directed speech, IDS is characterised by longer pauses, a slower tempo, more prosodic repetition, higher fundamental frequency, longer vowels, repetitive intonation structures, and greater melodiousness. In IDA, compared to adult-directed actions, the amplitude of movements, simplification, and number of repetitions tend to increase as the distance between communication partners decrease. In this review, we draw a parallel between IDS and IDA to show that adults change both their speech and actions in similar ways and that both actions and speech change depending on the infant’s age and/or developmental stage. We discuss possible (biological) mechanisms that elicit the use of IDS and IDA and argue that this specific type of adult behaviour has a unique impact on how infants perceive and process information. Insights on biological, behavioural, and functional aspects of IDMs could provide a new perspective on the importance of early interactions and knowledge acquisition in both typically developing children and those with developmental disorders

Gestures in children aged 4-7 years - how frequent are they and when do they occur?

Geste su prvo komunikacijsko sredstvo djece tipičnog razvoja i izuzetno su učestale u ranim komunikacijskim činovima, no njihova se pojava smanjuje sve češćom uporabom govora tijekom druge godine života. Jačanjem verbalnih sposobnosti mijenja se učestalost njihove pojave, ali i njihova funkcija. Budući da su analize spontane uporabe gesta uglavnom provođene na djeci rane dobi (od 1. do 3. godine) i na odraslim govornicima, cilj ovoga rada bio je ispitati uporabu gesta predškolske djece (od 4. do 7. godine) tipičnog razvoja. Podaci su se prikupljali analizom spontanog ponašanja u skupini vršnjaka, prema standardiziranom protokolu promatranja. Istraživanjem je obuhvaćeno tridesetero djece. Svako dijete promatrano je tijekom dva dana, 30 minuta po danu. Rezultati pokazuju da djeca, prosječno, koriste oko 15 gesta u 60 minuta komunikacije. Većina gesta javlja se uz govor (87 %). Većinu svih gesta čine deiktičke geste (81 %), uz znatno rjeđu pojavu konvencionalnih i simboličkih gesta. U skladu s očekivanjima, geste su se najčešće javljale u funkciji komentiranja (67 % komunikacijskih činova). Ovi podaci pružaju uvid u uporabu gesta i nude jasnije kriterije pri procjeni komunikacijskih obilježja djece dobi od 4. do 7. godine.Gestures represent the first means of communication in typically developing children and are very common in early acts of communication, but their occurrence decreases as language use increases in the second year of life. Strengthening verbal skills not only changes the frequency of their occurrence, but also their function. Since analyzes of spontaneous use of gestures have been conducted mostly on early-age children (1-3 years) and adult speakers, the aim of this study was to investigate the use of gestures in typically developing preschool children (4-7 years). Data were collected by analyzing spontaneous behavior in a group of peers (day-care settings) following a standardized observation protocol. Thirty children were included in the study. Each child was observed for two days, 30 minutes per day. The results show that, on average, children use about 15 gestures in 60 minutes of communication. Most gestures occur with speech (87%). The majority of all gestures are deictic gestures (81%), while conventional and symbolic gestures occur much less frequently. As expected, gestures most frequently occur in the function of commenting (67% of communicative acts). These data provide insight into the use of gestures and offer clearer criteria for assessing communication characteristics of children aged 4-7 years

Early communication: what is the secret?

U članku je prikazan rani komunikacijski razvoj s obzirom na njegovu ulogu u ontogenezi i parametre procjene. Prikaz je rezultat dugogodišnjeg znanstveno-istraţivačkog i kliničkog rada u području rane komunikacije u Kabinetu za ranu komunikaciju. Taj je rad pokazao da je vaţnost rane komunikacije u njezinoj ulozi u kognitivnom i socio-emocionalnom razvoju djeteta, ali i činjenici da obiljeţja rane komunikacije daju informacije o ukupnom razvojnom profilu, osobito vaţne za rano otkrivanje poremećaja iz autističnog spektra ili značajno usporenog kognitivnog razvoja. Rani komunikacijski razvoj poklapa se s periodom ranog djetinjstva (0-6), te ima predjezično (0-2) i jezično razdoblje (2-6). Jezično je razdoblje uvelike istraţivano, a predjezično je bilo dugo zanemareno i ovaj je pregled usmjeren na njega. Tijekom toga razdoblja događaju se vaţni razvojni prijelazi – od predintencijske prema intencijskoj komunikaciji, te od predsimboličke prema simboličkoj i jezičnoj komunikaciji. Njihova procjena je vrlo sloţena i traţi interdisciplinarni pristup, temeljito poznavanje razvojnih promjena u više domena, izoštreno opaţanje i sintezu informacija iz više izvora (testovi i skale procjene, opaţanje ponašanja, podaci koje daju roditelji).This article reviews the development of early communication, with a special emphasis on its role in ontogenesis and the assessment procedure. The importance of early communication lies in its great role in cognitive and socio-emotional development, but also in the fact that the features of early communication provide us with information about the whole developmental profile and are, therefore, very important for an early detection of autism spectrum disorders or intellectual disabilities. The period of early communication development can be subdivided into a preverbal (0-2 years) and verbal period (2-6 years). While there are a lot of studies on language development and the verbal period of communication development, the preverbal period is largely understudied. In the preverbal period important transitions can be noticed, especially the one from pre-intentional to intentional communication and from pre-symbolic towards symbolic (e.g. language) communication. The assessment of those features in children is very complex and requires an interdisciplinary approach, a profound knowledge of the developmental changes in many developmental domains, good observational skills and a synthesis of data from different sources (measuring scales, developmental tests, observation, parental reports, etc.)

Development of communication functions in children aged 1.5-4.0 years

Pragmatičko znanje važan je aspekt komunikacijske kompetencije. Ono obuhvaća komunikacijske funkcije koje osoba upotrebljava i pravila za uporabu tih funkcija na društveno prihvatljiv način. Istraživanja djece tipičnog razvoja potvrđuju pojavu širokog raspona komunikacijskih funkcija već u ranoj dobi, no ne postoji jasan i općeprihvaćeni obrazac razvoja komunikacijskih funkcija u djece starije od 18 mjeseci. Stoga je cilj ovog rada bio ispitati redoslijed i vrijeme pojavljivanja kasnih komunikacijskih funkcija kao što su funkcija traženja informacija, komentiranja, ostvarivanja humora i pripovijedanja. Istraživanjem su obuhvaćeni podaci o 134 djece tipičnog razvoja dobi 18‒47 mjeseci prikupljeni nestandardiziranom inačicom upitnika Language Use Inventory (LUI-Hrvatski). Rezultati su pokazali kako i nakon 18. mjeseca sustavno dolazi do širenja komunikacijskih funkcija te da, porastom dobi, djeca komunikaciju ostvaruju na sve složeniji, apstraktniji i kreativniji način. Osim što se usložnjavaju, rane se funkcije u kasnijoj dobi ostvaruju i kroz sve naprednije komunikacijske forme. Djeca isprva komuniciraju o predmetima i vlastitim aktivnostima (18‒23 mjeseca), zatim počinju komunicirati o vlastitoj perspektivi (što dijete misli, voli ili želi) i tuđim aktivnostima (24‒29 mjeseci), zatim o tuđoj perspektivi (što druga osoba želi ili voli), nepoznatim riječima i iskazima drugih osoba (30‒35 mjeseci) i na kraju o mislima drugih osoba i (socijalnim) pravilima (36‒47 mjeseci). Sličan razvojni napredak uočava se i u obilježjima humora (koji se isprva ostvaruje neverbalno a kasnije i verbalno) i pripovijedanja. Razvojne komunikacijske promjene i njihova kvaliteta sugeriraju da se one u velikoj mjeri oslanjaju na razvoj sociokognitivnih (teorija uma) i jezičnih sposobnosti.Pragmatic knowledge is an important aspect of communication competence, which consists of communication functions that a person uses and of the rules on how to use those functions in a socially appropriate way. Studies on typically developing children confirm the occurrence of a large number of communication functions at an early age. However, available data do not provide us with a clear and generally accepted developmental course of communication functions in children older than 18 months. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to gain insight into the order and time of appearance of later communication functions such as seeking information, commenting, developing narrative abilities and being funny. The study used the non standardised research adaptation of the Language Use Inventory (LUI Croatian) to collect data on 134 typically developing children aged 18-47 months. After the age of 18 months, communication functions expanded systematically, and children began to communicate in an increasingly complex, abstract and creative way. Some early appearing communication functions became more complex and involved more advanced communication forms. At first, children communicated about objects and their own activities (18-23 months), then about their own perspective (what they thought, liked or wanted), other people\u27s activities (24-29 months), someone else\u27s perspective (what the other person wanted or liked), unfamiliar words and statements by others (30-35 months) and lastly, other people\u27s thoughts and (social) rules (36-47 months). Developmental progress was also observed in their humor (which was achieved initially nonverbally and later verbally) and storytelling. Developmental communication changes and their quality suggest that they rely heavily on the development of sociocognitive ability (theory of mind) and language ability

The development of executive functions and their neurological correlates

U novije vrijeme izvršne funkcije se definiraju kao niz međusobno povezanih procesa (planiranje, vremenska organizacija ponašanja, anticipacija cilja, započinjanje aktivnosti, nadgledanje aktivnosti, sposobnost inhibiranja ili odgađanja odgovora, evaluacija odgovora, kognitivna fleksibilnost) potrebnih za svrhovito, prema cilju usmjereno ponašanje. Brojna istraživanja upućuju na povezanost izvršnih funkcija s frontalnim režnjevima, točnije s prefrontalnom moždanom korom. Sve je više razvojnih istraživanja izvršnih funkcija koje pokazuju da procesi izvršnih funkcija imaju svoje različite razvojne putove, počinju se intenzivnije razvijati i sazrijevaju u različito vrijeme. U radu će biti prikazani različiti razvojni putovi procesa izvršnih funkcija te s njima povezanih mozgovnih promjena kroz tri razvojna perioda: (1) rano djetinjstvo, (2) predškolska dob, (3) srednje djetinjstvo i adolescencija sve do odrasle dobi.Executive functions have recently been defined as a series of interrelated processes (planning, temporal organization of behaviour, goal anticipation, initiating activities, monitoring activities, capability to inhibit or postpone the response, response evaluation, cognitive flexibility) needed to ensure a purposeful, goal oriented behaviour. Numerous studies have suggested executive function to be connected with the frontal lobes, i.e. with the prefrontal cerebral cortex. A number of recent developmental studies of executive functions show that executive function processes have their own developmental paths; start developing and mature each at a different time. The paper plans to present different developmental paths of executive function processes and related brain changes throughout the three development periods: (1) early childhood, (2) preschool period, (3) childhood and adolescence into adulthood