Speech and Language Skills of Low-Risk Preterm and Full-Term Late Talkers: The Role of Child Factors and Parent Input
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Among children in the third year of life, late talkers comprise from 9% to 20%. This range seems to increase when addressing preterm children. This study examined video-recorded child spontaneous speech during parent–child book sharing as well as linguistic skills reported through the MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MB-CDI) Short Form in 61 late talkers aged 30 months old (26 low-risk preterm, 8 females; 35 full-term, 12 females). Differences between low-risk preterm and full-term late talkers in child language measures and parental speech input were tested, as were the roles of child and parent factors on child language. Low-risk preterm and full-term late talkers showed similar speech and language skills. Similarly, no differences were found in measures of parental speech between groups. Child cognitive score, chronological age, and low-risk preterm status were positively associated with lexical diversity, rate, and composition of child speech production, whereas family history for language and/or learning disorders as well as parent measures of lexical diversity, rate, and grammatical complexity were negatively associated with the above child variables. In addition, child cognitive score and low-risk preterm status were positively associated with the MB-CDI measures of word and sentence production. Findings are discussed in terms of the need of good practices when following up on low-risk preterm children and of interventions targeting parents’ input to preterm and full-term late talkers.
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Mother-child interaction and maternal communicative-linguistic input quality play a fundamental role in the linguistic development of late talkers.
“The studies by Suttora et al. [77] and Conway et al. [78] showed the fundamental role of mother–child interaction and maternal communicative–linguistic input quality for the linguistic development of late talkers.”
From Developmental Language Disorder: Early Predictors, Age for the Diagnosis, and Diagnostic Tools. A Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [77]
A family history of DLD and/or learning disorders is the only significant biological risk factor for speech production in late talkers.
“As for speech production, Suttora et al. [77] identified a family history of DLD and/or learning disorders as the only significant biological risk factor.”
From Developmental Language Disorder: Early Predictors, Age for the Diagnosis, and Diagnostic Tools. A Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [77]
Child cognitive score is positively associated with child speech production.
“Child cognitive score was positively associated with child speech production.”
From Developmental Language Disorder: Early Predictors, Age for the Diagnosis, and Diagnostic Tools. A Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [77]
Greater lexical diversity, rate, and grammatical complexity of parental linguistic input during parent-child book sharing are the only significant environmental risk factors for 30-month-old late talkers.
“Moreover, greater lexical diversity, rate and the grammatical complexity of the parental linguistic input during parent–child book sharing were the only significant environmental risk factors for 30-month-old late talkers.”
From Developmental Language Disorder: Early Predictors, Age for the Diagnosis, and Diagnostic Tools. A Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [77]
Biological and environmental risk factors for DLD have been detected under the age of 36 months.
“In addition, biological and environmental risk factors for DLD have been detected under the age of 36 months [75,76,77,78,80,81].”
From Developmental Language Disorder: Early Predictors, Age for the Diagnosis, and Diagnostic Tools. A Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [77]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Suttora, C., Guarini, A., Zuccarini, M., Aceti, A., Corvaglia, L., & Sansavini, A.
- Affiliations
- University of Bologna (IT)
- IRCCS Azienda Ospedliero-Universitaria di Bologna Policlinico di Sant'Orsola (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Suttora, Chiara
- Sansavini, Alessandra
- ORCID
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2020-10-21
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 20
- Pages
- 7684
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7589684
- OpenAlex
- W3094171764
- Cited by
- 36
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 5
- FWCI
- 7.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Archivio istituzionale della ricerca (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Bologna (AlmaIdea 2017 Grant Senior - Alessandra Sansavini)
- Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research MIUR (PRIN 2017 (2017HRCPE4_004))
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Infant Development and Preterm Care
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- late talkers, preterm children, full-term children, child language acquisition, lexical diversity, grammatical complexity, word production, sentence production, cognitive ability, follow-up intervention
- MeSH terms
- Child, Child Language, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Language Development Disorders, Linguistics, Pregnancy, Speech, Premature Birth
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