Predicting Meaningful Differences in School-Entry Language Skills from Child and Family Factors Measured at 12 months of Age

Abstract

Early childhood services which seek to promote early language development are hampered by the absence of reliable methods to identify children who may develop persistent language difficulties. This is because of variability in preschool children’s language development and that existing measures have limited diagnostic accuracy. In this study, we examined two approaches to identifying children at 12 months of age who are at risk of poor language skills at 4 years of age: (1) measurement of socio-cognitive and communicative foundations of language using the “Sure Steps to Talking” (SSTT) Questionnaire; (2) a “combined risk model” utilising child, family, and parenting characteristics. The stud..