Children With a History of Expressive Vocabulary Delay

Abstract

Outcomes of 21 children who were previously identified as late talkers were investigated at 5 years of age. The model of service delivery used for these children included a parent program for preventive intervention when the children were 2 years old, followed by focused direct intervention for children whose gains in speech and/or language skills continued to be slow. Their outcomes at 5 years of age were investigated using general language measures as well as higher level language tasks designed to stress the language system. Late talkers’ results were compared to those of a comparison group of children with histories of typical language development. Scores on standardized tests of language development indicated that the majority of late-talking children (i.e., 86%) had ‘caught up’ to their age-matched peers in expressive grammar and vocabulary. However, weaknesses remained in a number of higher level language areas, including a standardized test designed to measure facility with teacher-child discourse, a novel task that examined the child's use of pragmatic cues for anaphora resolution of ambiguous sentences, and narrative tasks. The clinical implications of these findings include close monitoring of these children as they reach school age and intervention in key areas of weakness for children who continue to demonstrate language difficulties as they mature.