The Relationship Between Prelinguistic Vocalization and Later Expressive Vocabulary in Young Children With Developmental Delay

spedrm{at}showme.missouri.edu

This study tested the relationship between prelinguistic vocalization and expressive vocabulary 1 year later in young children with mild to moderate developmental delays. Three vocalization variables were tested: rate of all vocalization, rate of vocalizations with consonants, and rate of vocalizations used interactively. The 58 toddlers in the study were 17–34 months old, not sensory impaired, and had Bayley Mental Development Indices (Bayley, 1969; Bayley, 1993) from 35–85. In addition, the children had fewer than 3 words in their expressive vocabularies and during classroom observation each showed at least one instance of intentional prelinguistic communication before testing. Selected sections of the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales procedures (CSBS; Wetherby & Prizant, 1993) were administered at the beginning and at the end of the study. The vocal measures were obtained in the initial CSBS session. One measure of expressive vocabulary was obtained in the CSBS session at the end of the study. In addition, expressive vocabulary was measured in a nonstructured play session at the end of the study. We predicted that rate of vocalization, rate of vocalizations with consonants, and rate of vocalizations used interactively would all be positively related to later expressive vocabulary. The results confirmed the predictions.

KEY WORDS: prelinguistic communication, vocalization, communication development, developmental delay

Submitted on February 2, 1998
Accepted on December 22, 1998

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. L. Glennen Predicting Language Outcomes for Internationally Adopted Children J Speech Lang Hear Res, April 1, 2007; 50(2): 529 - 548. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. O. Kane, B. Schopmeyer, N. K. Mellon, N.-Y. Wang, and J. K. Niparko Prelinguistic Communication and Subsequent Language Acquisition in Children With Cochlear Implants Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg, May 1, 2004; 130(5): 619 - 623. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. B. McCathren Teacher-Implemented Prelinguistic Communication Intervention Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, January 1, 2000; 15(1): 21 - 29. [Abstract] [PDF]