Lapseen ja lähiympäristöön liittyvien taustatekijöiden yhteys sanaston kehitykseen 24 ja 30 kuukauden iässä

Abstrakti Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää, onko 18 kuukauden iässä kartoitetuilla lapseen ja lähiympäristöön liittyvillä taustatekijöillä yhteyttä sanastollisiin taitoihin 24 ja 30 kuukauden iässä. Tutkimukseen osallistui 37 suomenkielistä tervettä ja täysiaikaisena syntynyttä lasta (16 poikaa ja 21 tyttöä). Tulosten mukaan sukupuoli oli yhteydessä ymmärtävän ja tuottavan sanaston tasoon 24 ja 30 kuukauden iässä sekä tuotettujen sanojen määrään 24 kuukauden iässä. Tytöt saivat korkeampia testipisteitä kuin pojat. Yhden tai useamman korvatulehduksen sairastaminen oli negatiivisesti yhteydessä sekä ymmärtävän että tuottavan sanaston tasoon 30 kuukauden iässä, muttei vielä 24 kuukauden iässä. Lapsilla, joilla oli vähintään yksi sisarus, oli heikompi pistemäärä ymmärtävän sanaston mittauksessa 30 kuukauden iässä kuin perheen ainokaisilla. Lähisukulaisilla esiintyvät kielelliset vaikeudet olivat yhteydessä ymmärtävän sanaston tasoon 24 kuukauden iässä. Esikoisuus ei ollut yhteydessä sanaston kehitykseen, eikä myöskään vanhempien koulutustaso. Aihetta on syytä tutkia lisää suuremmalla otoskoolla, sillä käytännön puheterapiatyössä tarvitaan tietoa piirteistä, jotka lisäävät riskiä kielellisille vaikeuksille.Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between child-related and environmental factors and child vocabulary development at 24 and 30 months. Information on the background factors was gathered at the children’s age of 18 months. The participants were 37 Finnish-speaking healthy children who were born full term (16 boys and 21 girls). Compared to boys, girls got higher scores in receptive and expressive vocabulary measurements at 24 and 30 months, and had larger productive vocabulary at 24 months. A negative relationship was found between otitis media (at least one otitis by the age 18 months) and receptive and expressive vocabulary measurements at 30 months, but not at 24 months. Children who had at least one sibling had lower scores in receptive vocabulary at 30 months than children who did not have any siblings. A relationship between familial history of difficulties in linguistic development and receptive vocabulary at 24 months was found. In turn, being firstborn or parental educational level were not associated with child vocabulary development. More studies with larger sample sizes are still needed, because in clinical practice there is a need for better understanding of potential risk factors for language problems

Lapselle suunnatun puheen piirteet ja niiden yhteys sanaston kehitykseen 24 ja 30 kuukauden iässä

Tiivistelmä Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin äitien ja 2-vuotiaiden lasten (N = 12) vapaita leikkitilanteita, joista analysoitiin lapselle suunnatun puheen piirteitä. Lapselle suunnatusta puheesta poimittiin responsiiviset ja ohjailevat ilmaukset sekä nimeämiset, laajennokset ja kielentämiset. Sen jälkeen tarkasteltiin kaikkien analysoitujen ilmaisutyyppien yhteyksiä toisiinsa. Lisäksi tutkittiin ilmaisutyyppien ja kahdessa ikäpisteessä, 24 ja 30 kuukauden iässä, mitatun lapsen sanaston tason välisiä yhteyksiä. Äitien ilmausten määrässä havaittiin paljon yksilöllistä vaihtelua. Ilmausten määrä korreloi positiivisesti responsiivisten ja kielentävien ilmausten määrään. Lisäksi responsiiviset ilmaukset korreloivat negatiivisesti sellaisten ohjailevien ilmausten kanssa, jotka suuntasivat lapsen huomiota uudelleen. Lapsen sanaston tason kannalta merkittävimmäksi äidin ilmaisutyypiksi nousivat laajennokset, joiden määrä korreloi positiivisesti myös responsiivisten ilmausten määrän kanssa. Nämä löydökset on hyvä huomioida puheterapeutin vastaanotolla, kun ohjataan puheen kehityksessä viivästyneen noin 2–3-vuotiaan lapsen vanhempia. Lapselle suunnatun puheen laadun ja sanaston kehityksen välistä yhteyttä on syytä tutkia lisää suuremmalla otoskoolla ja ottamalla huomioon vielä muitakin lapselle suunnatun puheen piirteitä.Abstract Characteristics of child-directed speech: relationships to vocabulary developmnet at 24 and 30 months This study explored child-directed speech of 12 mothers to their 2-year-old children during free play. Maternal child-directed speech was analysed for responsiveness and directiveness. In addition, the naming utterances, expansions, and descriptions were identified. Thereafter, correlational analyses were carried out to examine the relationships between different kinds of maternal utterances as well as their relationships to the measures of children’s vocabulary at the age of 2 years and six months later. Individual variation in the number of maternal utterances was considerable. The total number of utterances correlated positively with the number of responsive utterances and descriptions. The results also implied that the responsive and directive interactive styles are contrary to each other. With regard to the facilitating role of child-directed speech to children’s vocabulary development, according to this study the expansions were the most significant. Expansions also correlated positively with responsive utterances. It is advised to take these findings into account in speech and language therapy when advising parents of late-talking toddlers. There is a need for further investigations with larger sample sizes to make conclusions of the quality of child-directed speech and its role in vocabulary development with increased confidence. Future studies should also address the greater variety of characteristics of child-directed speech

Maternal responsiveness and directiveness in speech to 2-year-olds:relationships with children’s concurrent and later vocabulary

Abstract This study investigated responsive and directive speech from 60 Finnish mothers to their 2-year-old children, as well as correlations with concurrent and later vocabulary. Possible gender differences with regard to both maternal speech and children’s vocabulary skills were considered. There were no gender differences in maternal utterance frequencies or in maternal utterance types. Girls scored statistically significantly higher in receptive and expressive vocabulary tests at 24, 30 and 36 months. The effect sizes were large. Maternal Other Utterances (fillers like yes, oh, umm) were correlated with children’s concurrent receptive vocabulary. However, there was no relationship between Other Utterances and children’s later vocabulary after controlling for vocabulary size at 24 months. This association may reflect an attempt by mothers to elicit speech from more linguistically advanced children. Furthermore, mothers’ Intrusive Directives towards 2-year-olds correlated negatively with receptive vocabulary at 30 months, particularly for boys. Surprisingly, Intrusive Attentional Directives correlated positively with expressive vocabulary in the group of 30-month-old girls. The results of this study demonstrate relationships between maternal verbal interactional style and both concurrent and future child vocabulary

Maternal verbal responsiveness and directiveness:consistency, stability, and relations to child early linguistic development

Abstract Maternal responsive and directive speech to children at ages 0;10 and 2;0 was investigated by applying a procedure first introduced by Flynn and Masur (2007) to a new language community (Finnish). The issues examined were consistency and stability over time, and also the role of responsiveness and directiveness in child linguistic development at 1;0 and 2;6. The measures of maternal speech from each age were used to predict the results of the subsequent linguistic assessment. Negative correlations between responsive and directive utterances were found at both ages. The frequencies of responsive utterances and supportive directives increased over time. Responsiveness was positively, and intrusive directiveness negatively, related to child early comprehensive skills and the use of symbolic actions and communicative gestures. By contrast, no relations were found between responsiveness and directiveness and children’s later linguistic capacities

Social-emotional/behavioural problems and competencies in toddlers:relationships with early vocabulary development

Abstract This longitudinal study aimed at showing the effect of early social-emotional/behavioural problems and competencies on vocabulary development in toddlers. The participants were 60 native Finnish-speaking healthy children (30 boys and 30 girls). Parental reports on the Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment (BITSEA) were gathered at the children’s age of 18 months. The Problem Total and Competence Total, as well as externalizing, internalizing and dysregulation problem domain, scores were calculated. Vocabulary development was assessed by a certified speech and language therapist at ages 24 and 30 months using the Receptive and Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Tests (ROWPVT-4 and EOWPVT-4). Compared to boys, girls obtained higher Competence Total scores and scored considerably higher in all the vocabulary measures. With regard to the relationships between early social-emotional/behavioural problems and vocabulary measures, Problem Total scores correlated negatively with receptive vocabulary scores at 24 months and expressive vocabulary scores at 30 months. Further analyses indicated that particularly externalizing problems were associated with slower vocabulary development. By contrast, Competence Total scores correlated positively with expressive vocabulary at 30 months. The same analyses were carried out separately for boys and girls. Mostly, the separate findings were in line with the results for the whole group of children

Early vocabulary development:relationships with prelinguistic skills and early social-emotional/behavioral problems and competencies

Abstract The aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate early vocabulary development and its relationships with prelinguistic communication skills and social-emotional/behavioral (SEB) problems and competencies. The participants were 58 healthy Finnish-speaking children (30 girls, 28 boys). First, the concurrent relationships were investigated at the age of 18 months. Second, the relationships between prelinguistic communication skills and SEB problems and competencies at 18 months, and subsequent vocabulary scores at 24 and 30 months, were examined. Parental reports on early vocabulary (MacArthur Communicative Developmental Inventories; MCDI), prelinguistic communication skills (The Infant-Toddler Checklist of the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile; ITC), SEB problems and competencies (Brief Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment; BITSEA) were gathered. Compared to boys, girls scored significantly higher on ITC Speech Composite at 18 months and expressive vocabulary measures at 18, 24, and 30 months. Vocabulary, as well as prelinguistic communication measures, correlated with SEB competencies at 18 months. Furthermore, vocabulary, as well as ITC Symbolic Composite and Total Score, correlated negatively with externalizing problem and SEB Total Problem scores. With regard to subsequent vocabulary development, all of the prelinguistic communication measures at 18 months correlated with vocabulary at 24 and 30 months. However, when accounted for gender and earlier vocabulary, only the associations with ITC Speech Composite and Total Score at 24 months remained significant. SEB Competencies at 18 months correlated positively, while externalizing problems at 18 months correlated negatively with vocabulary at 24 and 30 months, however, these associations did not remain significant, when accounted for gender and earlier vocabulary