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  • A group of children was identified as 'late talkers' who were slow in expressive language development (SELD) on the basis of small expressive vocabulary size at 20-34 months of age. The subjects were followed yearly throughout the preschool and early school-age periods in order to track growth in language and related skills. When the subjects were in second grade, their expressive language skills, as indexed by the Developmental Sentence Score, were measured. This measure was used as the outcome variable in regression and discriminant function analyses. Predictor variables included those gathered when the subjects entered the study at age 2. They included measures of early expressive and receptive language by parent report, nonverbal cognitive performance, Bayley Mental Scale score (a combined verbal and nonverbal cognitive measure), phonological skill, motor skills, maladaptive behaviors, social skills, birth order, socioeconomic (SES) level, and gender. Only SES and early expressive language skills predicted expressive language outcome in second grade. Discriminant function analysis revealed these two factors were significant in predicting success (scores above the tenth percentile), along with a contribution of early gross motor skills. The implications of these findings for understanding early language delays are discussed.

Last update from database: 3/13/26, 4:15 PM (UTC)

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