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Children
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Research on Social Communication & Language Development in Children and...
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Research on Social Communication & Language Development in Children and Adolescents

A special issue of Children (ISSN 2227-9067). This special issue belongs to the section "Pediatric Neurology & Neurodevelopmental Disorders".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 August 2024) | Viewed by 5622

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Maria Chiara Pino

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy
Interests: socio-emotional abilities; typical and atypical development; autism spectrum disorder
Dr. Greta Mazzaggio

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor Assistant
Department of Humanities, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
Interests: applied linguistics; cognitive linguistics; autistic disorder; language disorders

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Language in children is spontaneous and largely autonomous and it plays a central role in social interaction, with a reciprocal relationship between language and social communication. For this reason, a delay in language development can represent an alarm bell for specific neurodevelopmental disorders. In addition, language disorders could impair the development of more complex abilities such as social communication that is reliant upon certain language features, including adapting language use to the listener or situation and adhering to conversational and storytelling rules. These rules can vary across cultures and individuals and are often implicit, making it challenging to navigate different social situations. Children with language difficulties may struggle with using social communication and having social interactions effectively.

This Special Issue aims to explore the factors that can impact the relationship between language and social communication in the early stage of life, including protective and risk factors. Studies on the development of these abilities will be welcome. The Special Issue welcomes both original research (using qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods approaches) and reviews.

Dr. Maria Chiara Pino
Guest Editor

Dr. Greta Mazzaggio
Guest Editor Assistant

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Children is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • social communication
  • language development
  • social abilities
  • children
  • adolescents
  • developmental language disorders
  • communicative and linguistic interaction

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 439 KiB  
Article
Linguistic Skills and Socioeconomic Status: Two Oft Forgotten Factors in Child Metaphor Comprehension
by Nausicaa Pouscoulous and Alexandra Perovic
Children 2023, 10(12), 1847; https://doi.org/10.3390/children10121847 - 25 Nov 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1917
Abstract
Metaphor understanding can be tricky for children until mid-childhood, yet some research suggests that pre-schoolers are already competent. Many factors have been proposed to play a role in the development of metaphor comprehension. In this study we focus on two obvious contenders that [...] Read more.
Metaphor understanding can be tricky for children until mid-childhood, yet some research suggests that pre-schoolers are already competent. Many factors have been proposed to play a role in the development of metaphor comprehension. In this study we focus on two obvious contenders that have been overlooked in recent years: general language skills and socioeconomic status (SES). Two-hundred and seventy-two children, aged from 2;11 to 11;04 (146 girls) were recruited from 21 British schools and nurseries. Their SES was established using a composite measure linked to school location, while general language skills were assessed using a standardised measure of vocabulary comprehension. Novel metaphor comprehension was tested with a simple reference assignment task. Our study confirms that children interpret novel metaphors confidently from the age of 4. Our findings indicate that novel metaphor understanding is associated with age and, importantly, that it is linked to vocabulary skills, as well as SES, but not gender. These two factors should therefore be considered in future research on metaphor development, as well as intervention and education. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Social Communication & Language Development in Children and Adolescents)
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16 pages, 840 KiB  
Article
Spelling Proficiency of Children with a Resolved Phonological Speech Sound Disorder Treated with an Integrated Approach—A Long-Term Follow-Up Randomized Controlled Trial
by Denise I. Siemons-Lühring, Amélie E. Hesping, Harald A. Euler, Lars Meyer, Corinna Gietmann, Boris Suchan and Katrin Neumann
Children 2023, 10(7), 1154; https://doi.org/10.3390/children10071154 - 30 Jun 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3024
Abstract
Phonological developmental speech sound disorders (pDSSD) in childhood are often associated with later difficulties in literacy acquisition. The present study is a follow-up of the randomized controlled trial (RCT) on the effectiveness of PhonoSens, a treatment for pDSSD that focuses on improving auditory [...] Read more.
Phonological developmental speech sound disorders (pDSSD) in childhood are often associated with later difficulties in literacy acquisition. The present study is a follow-up of the randomized controlled trial (RCT) on the effectiveness of PhonoSens, a treatment for pDSSD that focuses on improving auditory self-monitoring skills and categorial perception of phoneme contrasts, which could have a positive impact on later spelling development. Our study examines the spelling abilities of 26 German-speaking children (15 girls, 11 boys; mean age 10.1 years, range 9.3–11.2 years) 3–6 years after their successful completion of the PhonoSens treatment. Spelling assessment revealed that only 3 out of 26 participants developed a spelling disorder. In the overall population of fourth-graders, one in five children showed a spelling deficit; in another study of elementary school children, with resolved pDSSD, 18 of 32 children had a spelling deficit. Thus, the applied pDSSD treatment method appears to be associated with positive spelling development. Multiple regression analysis revealed that among the potentially predictive factors for German-speaking children with resolved pDSSD to develop later spelling difficulties, parental educational level and family risk for developmental language disorder (DLD) had an impact on children’s spelling abilities; gender and the child’s phonological memory had not. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Research on Social Communication & Language Development in Children and Adolescents)
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