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The First 1000 Days of Life: Investigating Early Markers for Promoting Healthy Language Development

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A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Children's Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 March 2022) | Viewed by 76221

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Maja Roch

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Guest Editor

Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, Università degli Studi di Padova, 35122 Padua, Italy
Interests: language and cognition in populations with atypical development; linguistic processes in bilingualism; development of training for the enhancement of language and narrative skills in preschool years (typical and atypical development); analysis of language skills in children from families with low SES

Prof. Dr. Alessandra Sansavini

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Guest Editor

Department of Psychology, “Alma Mater Studiorum” Università di Bologna, 40127 Bologna, Italy
Interests: development of communication, language, cognition, learning abilities and modalities of mother-infant interaction in infants and children with atypical (preterm) and typical (full-term) development; instruments of observation and evaluation of communication and language in the first years of life; development of narrative, social, cognitive, and temporal competences at preschool age; relationships between oral and written linguistic abilities at preschool and school age
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Viola Macchi Cassia

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Guest Editor

Department of Psychology, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Bicocca Child&Baby Lab, 20122 Milano, Italy
Interests: interactions between biological constraints and perceptual experience in the development of neurocognitive specialization; infant cognition; early precursors for cognitive development; cultural influence on infant cognitive development; development and plasticity of face processing biases; developmental origins of spatial biases in mental representation; implicit learning skills and serial order processing in infancy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The first 1000 days of life are recognized as a time of tremendous potential and enormous vulnerability, as the brain is developing rapidly. The basic skills that children develop during early infancy predict success in the later development of complex, high level abilities such as language, reading and writing, and social skills. Any difficulty or shortcut during this early stage of life have significant cascading effects on the child’s future proficiency in all these abilities.

Language acquisition is one aspect of development for which the first 1000 days are most critical. Language development is a multifactorial process influenced by numerous genetic and environmental factors. Wide interindividual differences exist in the way and rate at which children acquire language, and many neurodevelopmental disorders include impairments in language and communication skills. Therefore, a solid understanding of early markers of atypical language development across the first 2 years of life becomes crucial for early prevention and intervention.

The scope of the current Special Issue is to bring together scholars and experts in the field of typical and atypical linguistic development to provide a clearer picture of the crucial factors predicting language development, and to inform practitioners on how to support language acquisition in the earlier stages of development. Broadly, this Special Issue is seeking original submissions that examine the role of different factors related to typical and atypical linguistic development, which may include, but are not limited to, SES, preterm birth, multilingual contexts, educational poverty, familial risk condition, motor development, cognitive development and linguistic input.

Dr. Maja Roch
Prof. Dr. Alessandra Sansavini
Prof. Dr. Viola Macchi Cassia
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 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 2500 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

first thousand days
language development
early markers
motor development
cognitive development
SES
educational poverty
developmental language disorder
bilingualism
preterm birth
genetic risk

Published Papers (14 papers)

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15 pages, 700 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Developmental Paths of Pointing for Various Motives in Infants with and without Language Delay

by Katharina J. Rohlfing, Carina Lüke, Ulf Liszkowski, Ute Ritterfeld and Angela Grimminger

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(9), 4982; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19094982 - 20 Apr 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2076

Abstract

Pointing is one of the first conventional means of communication and infants have various motives for engaging in it such as imperative, declarative, or informative. Little is known about the developmental paths of producing and understanding these different motives. In our longitudinal study (N = 58) during the second year of life, we experimentally elicited infants’ pointing production and comprehension in various settings and under pragmatically valid conditions. We followed two steps in our analyses and assessed the occurrence of canonical index-finger pointing for different motives and the engagement in an ongoing interaction in pursuit of a joint goal revealed by frequency and multimodal utterances. For understanding the developmental paths, we compared two groups: typically developing infants (TD) and infants who have been assessed as having delayed language development (LD). Results showed that the developmental paths differed according to the various motives. When comparing the two groups, for all motives, LD infants produced index-finger pointing 2 months later than TD infants. For the engagement, although the pattern was less consistent across settings, the frequency of pointing was comparable in both groups, but infants with LD used less canonical forms of pointing and made fewer multimodal contributions than TD children. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The First 1000 Days of Life: Investigating Early Markers for Promoting Healthy Language Development)

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22 pages, 420 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Integrating Gestures and Words to Communicate in Full-Term and Low-Risk Preterm Late Talkers

by Chiara Suttora, Annalisa Guarini, Mariagrazia Zuccarini, Arianna Aceti, Luigi Corvaglia and Alessandra Sansavini

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(7), 3918; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19073918 - 25 Mar 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2218

Abstract

Young children use gestures to practice communicative functions that foster their receptive and expressive linguistic skills. Studies investigating the use of gestures by late talkers are limited. This study aimed to investigate the use of gestures and gesture–word combinations and their associations with word comprehension and word and sentence production in late talkers. A further purpose was to examine whether a set of individual and environmental factors accounted for interindividual differences in late talkers’ gesture and gesture–word production. Sixty-one late talkers, including 35 full-term and 26 low-risk preterm children, participated in the study. Parents filled out the Italian short forms of the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MB–CDI), “Gesture and Words” and “Words and Sentences” when their children were 30-months-old, and they were then invited to participate in a book-sharing session with their child. Children’s gestures and words produced during the book-sharing session were transcribed and coded into CHAT of CHILDES and analyzed with CLAN. Types of spontaneous gestures (pointing and representational gestures) and gesture–word combinations (complementary, equivalent, and supplementary) were coded. Measures of word tokens and MLU were also computed. Correlational analyses documented that children’s use of gesture–word combinations, particularly complementary and supplementary forms, in the book-sharing session was positively associated with linguistic skills both observed during the session (word tokens and MLU) and reported by parents (word comprehension, word production, and sentence production at the MB–CDI). Concerning individual factors, male gender was negatively associated with gesture and gesture–word use, as well as with MB–CDI action/gesture production. In contrast, having a low-risk preterm condition and being later-born were positively associated with the use of gestures and pointing gestures, and having a family history of language and/or learning disorders was positively associated with the use of representational gestures. Furthermore, a low-risk preterm status and a higher cognitive score were positively associated with gesture–word combinations, particularly complementary and supplementary types. With regard to environmental factors, older parental age was negatively associated with late talkers’ use of gestures and pointing gestures. Interindividual differences in late talkers’ gesture and gesture–word production were thus related to several intertwined individual and environmental factors. Among late talkers, use of gestures and gesture–word combinations represents a point of strength promoting receptive and expressive language acquisition. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The First 1000 Days of Life: Investigating Early Markers for Promoting Healthy Language Development)

18 pages, 374 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Do Spoken Vocabulary and Gestural Production Distinguish Children with Transient Language Delay from Children Who Will Show Developmental Language Disorder? A Pilot Study

by Pasquale Rinaldi, Arianna Bello, Francesca Romana Lasorsa and Maria Cristina Caselli

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(7), 3822; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19073822 - 23 Mar 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1862

Abstract

The literature on the role of gestures in children with language delay (LD) is partial and controversial. The present study explores gestural production and modality of expression in children with LD and semantic and temporal relationships between gestures and words in gesture + word combinations. Thirty-three children participated (mean age, 26 months), who were recruited through a screening programme for LD. Cognitive skills, lexical abilities, and the use of spontaneous gestures in a naming task were evaluated when the children were 32 months old. When the children were 78 months old, their parents were interviewed to collect information about an eventual diagnosis of developmental language disorder (DLD). According to these data, the children fell into three groups: children with typical development (n = 13), children with LD who did not show DLD (transient LD; n = 9), and children with LD who showed DLD (n = 11). No significant differences emerged between the three groups for cognitive and lexical skills (comprehension and production), for number of gestures spontaneously produced, and for the sematic relationships between gestures and words. Differences emerged in the modality of expression, where children with transient LD produced more unimodal gestural utterances than typical-development children, and in the temporal relationships between gestures and words, where the children who would show DLD provided more frequent representational gestures before the spoken answer than typical-development children. We suggest a different function for gestures in children with T-LD, who used representational gestures to replace the spoken word they were not yet able to produce, and in children with LD-DLD, who used representational gestures to access spoken words. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The First 1000 Days of Life: Investigating Early Markers for Promoting Healthy Language Development)

16 pages, 1526 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Moderating Effects of Early Pointing on Developmental Trajectories of Word Comprehension and Production

by Paola Perucchini, Arianna Bello, Fabio Presaghi and Tiziana Aureli

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(4), 2199; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19042199 - 15 Feb 2022

Viewed by 1302

Abstract

The present study investigated the moderating role of early communicative pointing on the developmental trends of word comprehension and production over the second year of life. Seventy-seven infants were involved in an experimental pointing task (T-POINT) in sessions at 9 and 12 months, and the MB-CDI questionnaire was filled in by their parents at 15, 18 and 24 months. Based on the age at which the infants were seen to use pointing, they were classified into three groups: the ‘Early’ pointers, who first pointed during the 9-month session; the ‘Typical’ pointers, who first pointed in the 12-month session; and the ‘Late’ pointers, who never pointed in either of the sessions. Using multilevel modelling, we traced the developmental trajectories and individual differences for the two lexical domains of word comprehension and production according to the three pointing groups. The main results showed that compared to the Typical pointers: (i) the Early pointers were faster for word comprehension development, and were similar for word production; (ii) the Late pointers showed lexical delay before 18 months for word comprehension, and between 18 and 24 months for word production. These data are discussed in light of the different roles of early pointing on receptive compared to expressive vocabulary development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The First 1000 Days of Life: Investigating Early Markers for Promoting Healthy Language Development)

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17 pages, 1397 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Visual Implicit Learning Abilities in Infants at Familial Risk for Language and Learning Impairments

by Roberta Bettoni, Chiara Cantiani, Valentina Riva, Massimo Molteni, Viola Macchi Cassia and Hermann Bulf

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(3), 1877; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031877 - 08 Feb 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1979

Abstract

The ability of infants to track transitional probabilities (Statistical Learning—SL) and to extract and generalize high-order rules (Rule Learning—RL) from sequences of items have been proposed as being pivotal for the acquisition of language and reading skills. Although there is ample evidence of specific associations between SL and RL abilities and, respectively, vocabulary and grammar skills, research exploring SL and RL as early markers of language and learning (dis)abilities is still scarce. Here we investigated the efficiency of visual SL and RL skills in typically developing (TD) seven-month-old infants and in seven-month-old infants at high risk (HR) for language learning impairment. Infants were tested in two visual-habituation tasks aimed to measure their ability to extract transitional probabilities (SL task) or high-order, repetition-based rules (RL task) from sequences of visual shapes. Post-habituation looking time preferences revealed that both TD and HR infants succeeded in learning the statistical structure (SL task), while only TD infants, but not HR infants, were able to learn and generalize the high-order rule (RL task). These findings suggest that SL and RL may contribute differently to the emergence of language learning impairment and support the hypothesis that a mechanism linked to the extraction of grammar structures may contribute to the disorder. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The First 1000 Days of Life: Investigating Early Markers for Promoting Healthy Language Development)

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12 pages, 672 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Language Development in the Second Year of Life: The Case of Children with Sex Chromosome Trisomies Diagnosed before Birth

by Laura Zampini, Alessandra Lorini, Gaia Silibello, Paola Zanchi, Francesca Dall’Ara, Paola Francesca Ajmone, Federico Monti, Faustina Lalatta, Maria Antonella Costantino and Paola Giovanna Vizziello

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(3), 1831; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031831 - 06 Feb 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 41722

Abstract

Many individual factors, such as early communicative skills, could play a role in explaining later linguistic outcomes. The detection of predictive variables is fundamental to identifying early the children who need intervention. The present study focuses on children with sex chromosome trisomies (SCTs), genetic conditions with an increased risk of developing language delays or impairments. The aims are to analyse their communicative skills at 18 months of age, and identify significant predictors of their later vocabulary size. Participants were 76 18-month-old children (38 with SCTs, and 38 typically-developing (TD) children). Their communicative skills were assessed during a parent–child play session, and parents filled in a report on their vocabulary development at 18 and 24 months. Children with SCTs showed significantly poorer linguistic skills at 18 months in both preverbal (babbling and gestures) and verbal abilities. A high percentage (nearly 70%) of toddlers with SCTs were late-talking children at 24 months, and those toddlers showed a lower frequency of babbling utterances at 18 months. Early lexical skills, children’s developmental quotient, and being part of the group of toddlers with SCTs were significant predictors of children’s vocabulary size six months later. These variables should be considered when assessing the linguistic competence of a child with SCTs to detect possible early risk factors of future language impairment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The First 1000 Days of Life: Investigating Early Markers for Promoting Healthy Language Development)

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16 pages, 1296 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Reduced Theta Sampling in Infants at Risk for Dyslexia across the Sensitive Period of Native Phoneme Learning

by Maria Mittag, Eric Larson, Samu Taulu, Maggie Clarke and Patricia K. Kuhl

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(3), 1180; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031180 - 21 Jan 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2290

Abstract

Research on children and adults with developmental dyslexia—a specific difficulty in learning to read and spell—suggests that phonological deficits in dyslexia are linked to basic auditory deficits in temporal sampling. However, it remains undetermined whether such deficits are already present in infancy, especially during the sensitive period when the auditory system specializes in native phoneme perception. Because dyslexia is strongly hereditary, it is possible to examine infants for early predictors of the condition before detectable symptoms emerge. This study examines low-level auditory temporal sampling in infants at risk for dyslexia across the sensitive period of native phoneme learning. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we found deficient auditory sampling at theta in at-risk infants at both 6 and 12 months, indicating atypical auditory sampling at the syllabic rate in those infants across the sensitive period for native-language phoneme learning. This interpretation is supported by our additional finding that auditory sampling at theta predicted later vocabulary comprehension, nonlinguistic communication and the ability to combine words. Our results indicate a possible early marker of risk for dyslexia. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The First 1000 Days of Life: Investigating Early Markers for Promoting Healthy Language Development)

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19 pages, 817 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Does Toddlers’ Engagement in Literacy Activities Influence Their Language Abilities?

by Raffaele Dicataldo and Maja Roch

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(1), 526; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010526 - 04 Jan 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3391

Abstract

The most intensive period of language development is during the first years of life, during which the brain is developing rapidly. Research has shown that children from disadvantaged households who received high-quality stimulation at a young age grew into adults who earned an average of 25% more than those who did not receive these interventions. In addition, it has been suggested that children who show a greater interest in literacy-related activities and voluntarily engage in them are likely to become better readers than children with less interest in literacy. These children’s factors, along with their engagement in literacy activities, are important components in children’s early literacy experiences and may affect their early language development. In this study, we examined associations among maternal education, home literacy environment (HLE), children’s interest and engagement in literacy activities, and language development of 44 toddlers aged between 20 and 36 months. Overall, results showed that only children’s engagement in literacy activities was related to vocabulary and morphosyntactic skills, whereas maternal education, HLE, and children’s interests were not. These results suggest that taking advantage of individual children’s interests by planning activities in which children are fully engaged, may be effective strategies for promoting children’s oral language development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The First 1000 Days of Life: Investigating Early Markers for Promoting Healthy Language Development)

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14 pages, 765 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Effects of Age, Dosage, and Poverty on Second Language Learning through SparkLing^TM in Infant Education Centers in Madrid, Spain

by Naja Ferjan Ramírez, Kaveri K. Sheth and Patricia K. Kuhl

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(23), 12758; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312758 - 03 Dec 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2040

Abstract

The first 1000 days represent a unique window of opportunity for second language learning. In two recent studies we demonstrated that Spanish infants’ use of second-language (L2) English productive vocabulary and early utterances rapidly increased through the play-based, interactive and highly social SparkLing^TM Intervention, which consists of an evidence-based method and curriculum stemming from decades of research on infant language development. Analyzing an expanded and more diverse sample of Spanish infants (n = 414; age 9–33 months) who received the SparkLing^TM Intervention, this study examines the variability in L2 production, which was assessed via first-person LENA audio recordings. Infants’ age significantly and positively correlated with L2 production, demonstrating an advantage for older infants in the sample. While overall socioeconomic status (SES) was not related to L2 production, very young infants (under two years) who lived in high poverty homes showed faster increases in English production compared to peers who lived in moderate poverty homes. Infants’ attendance in the program (“dosage”) was also predictive of their L2 production outcomes. Infants across SES have the capacity to begin acquiring two languages in early education classrooms with SparkLing^TM through one-hour/day sessions in social environments that engages them through frequent high-quality language input. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The First 1000 Days of Life: Investigating Early Markers for Promoting Healthy Language Development)

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20 pages, 1635 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Integrated Perspective on Spatio-Temporal Attention and Infant Language Acquisition

by Sofia Russo, Giulia Calignano, Marco Dispaldro and Eloisa Valenza

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(4), 1592; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041592 - 08 Feb 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2440

Abstract

Efficiency in the early ability to switch attention toward competing visual stimuli (spatial attention) may be linked to future ability to detect rapid acoustic changes in linguistic stimuli (temporal attention). To test this hypothesis, we compared individual performances in the same cohort of Italian-learning infants in two separate tasks: (i) an overlap task, measuring disengagement efficiency for visual stimuli at 4 months (Experiment 1), and (ii) an auditory discrimination task for trochaic syllabic sequences at 7 months (Experiment 2). Our results indicate that an infant’s efficiency in processing competing information in the visual field (i.e., visuospatial attention; Exp. 1) correlates with the subsequent ability to orient temporal attention toward relevant acoustic changes in the speech signal (i.e., temporal attention; Exp. 2). These results point out the involvement of domain-general attentional processes (not specific to language or the sensorial domain) playing a pivotal role in the development of early language skills in infancy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The First 1000 Days of Life: Investigating Early Markers for Promoting Healthy Language Development)

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18 pages, 393 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Home Language Activities and Expressive Vocabulary of Toddlers from Low-SES Monolingual Families and Bilingual Immigrant Families

by Elena Florit, Chiara Barachetti, Marinella Majorano and Manuela Lavelli

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(1), 296; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18010296 - 03 Jan 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3012

Abstract

Children from low-SES (socioeconomic status) and minority language immigrant families are at risk of vocabulary difficulties due to the less varied and complex language in the home environment. Children are less likely to be involved in home language activities (HLA) in interaction with adults in low-SES than in higher-SES families. However, few studies have investigated the HLA variability among low-SES, minority language bilingual immigrant families. This longitudinal study analyzes the frequency and duration of HLA and their predictive roles for expressive vocabulary acquisition in 70 equivalent low-SES monolingual and bilingual toddlers from minority contexts. HLA and vocabulary were assessed at 24 and 30 months in the majority language (Italian) and in total (majority+minority language) using parent and teacher reports. The frequency and duration of HLA in interaction with adults in total, but not in the majority language, at 24 months were similar for the two groups. These activities uniquely accounted for expressive vocabulary at 30 months, after accounting for total vocabulary at 24 months, in both groups. In conclusion, a minority-majority language context is not an additional risk factor for vocabulary acquisition if HLA is considered in interaction with adults in both languages. HLA are proximal environmental protective factors for vocabulary acquisition. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The First 1000 Days of Life: Investigating Early Markers for Promoting Healthy Language Development)

Other

Jump to: Research

18 pages, 673 KiB

Open AccessStudy Protocol

Parental Report via a Mobile App in the Context of Early Language Trajectories: StarWords Study Protocol

by Karolina Mieszkowska, Grzegorz Krajewski, Krzysztof Sobota, Agnieszka Dynak, Joanna Kolak, Magdalena Krysztofiak, Barbara Łukomska, Magdalena Łuniewska, Nina Gram Garmann, Pernille Hansen, Anna Sara Hexeberg Romøren, Hanne Gram Simonsen, Katie Alcock, Napoleon Katsos and Ewa Haman

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(5), 3067; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19053067 - 05 Mar 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2441

Abstract

Social sciences researchers emphasize that new technologies can overcome the limitations of small and homogenous samples. In research on early language development, which often uses parental reports, taking the testing online might be particularly compelling. Due to logistical limitations, previous studies on bilingual children have explored the language development trajectories in general (e.g., by including few and largely set apart timepoints), or focused on small, homogeneous samples. The present study protocol presents a new, on-going study which uses new technologies to collect longitudinal data continuously from parents of multilingual, bilingual, and monolingual children. Our primary aim is to establish the developmental trajectories in Polish-British English and Polish-Norwegian bilingual children and Polish monolingual children aged 0–3 years with the use of mobile and web-based applications. These tools allow parents to report their children’s language development as it progresses, and allow us to characterize children’s performance in each language (the age of reaching particular language milestones). The project’s novelty rests on its use of mobile technologies to characterize the bilingual and monolingual developmental trajectory from the very first words to broader vocabulary and multiword combinations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The First 1000 Days of Life: Investigating Early Markers for Promoting Healthy Language Development)

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20 pages, 1503 KiB

Open AccessSystematic Review

The Vocabulary of Infants with an Elevated Likelihood and Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Infant Language Studies Using the CDI and MSEL

by Zsofia Belteki, Raquel Lumbreras, Kloe Fico, Ewa Haman and Caroline Junge

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(3), 1469; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031469 - 27 Jan 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 4062

Abstract

Diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are typically accompanied by atypical language development, which can be noticeable even before diagnosis. The siblings of children diagnosed with ASD are at elevated likelihood for ASD diagnosis and have been shown to have higher prevalence rates than the general population. In this paper, we systematically reviewed studies looking at the vocabulary size and development of infants with autism. One inclusion criterion was that infants were grouped either pre-diagnostically as elevated or typical likelihood or post-diagnostically as ASD or without ASD. This review focused on studies that tested infants up to 24 months of age and that assessed vocabulary either via the parent-completed MacArthur–Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory (CDI) or the clinician-administered Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL). Our systematic search yielded 76 studies. A meta-analysis was performed on these studies that compared the vocabulary scores of EL and TL infants pre-diagnostically and the scores of ASD and non-ASD infants post-diagnostically. Both pre- and post-diagnostically, it was found that the EL and ASD infants had smaller vocabularies than their TL and non-ASD peers, respectively. The effect sizes across studies were heterogenous, prompting additional moderator analyses of age and sub-group analyses of the language measure used (CDI or MSEL) as potential moderators of the effect size. Age was found to be a moderator both in the pre- and post-diagnostical groups, however, language measure was not a moderator in either diagnostic group. Interpretations and future research directions are discussed based on these findings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The First 1000 Days of Life: Investigating Early Markers for Promoting Healthy Language Development)

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15 pages, 500 KiB

Open AccessStudy Protocol

Effects of Early Vocal Contact in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Study Protocol for a Multi-Centre, Randomised Clinical Trial

by Manuela Filippa, Elisa Della Casa, Roberto D’amico, Odoardo Picciolini, Clara Lunardi, Alessandra Sansavini and Fabrizio Ferrari

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18(8), 3915; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18083915 - 08 Apr 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3102

Abstract

Preterm infants are at risk for developing altered trajectories of cognitive, social, and linguistic competences compared to a term population. This is mainly due to medical and environmental factors, as they are exposed to an atypical auditory environment and simultaneously, long periods of early separation from their parents. The short-term effects of early vocal contact (EVC) on an infant’s early stability have been investigated. However, there is limited evidence of its impact on the infant’s autonomic nervous system maturation, as indexed by heart rate variability, and its long-term impact on infant neurodevelopment. Our multi-centric study aims to investigate the effects of EVC on a preterm infant’s physiology, neurobehaviour, and development. Eighty stable preterm infants, born at 25–32 weeks and 6 days gestational age, without specific abnormalities, will be enrolled and randomised to either an intervention or control group. The intervention group will receive EVC, where mothers will talk and sing to their infants for 10 min three times per week for 2 weeks. Mothers in the control group will be encouraged to spend the same amount of time next to the incubator and observe the infant’s behaviour through a standard cluster of indicators. Infants will be assessed at baseline; the end of the intervention; term equivalent age; and 3, 6, 12, and 24 months corrected age, with a battery of physiological, neurobehavioral, and developmental measures. Early interventions in the neonatal intensive care unit have demonstrated effects on the neurodevelopment of preterm infants, thereby lowering the negative long-term effects of an atypical auditory and interactional environment. Our proposed study will provide new insight into mother–infant early contact as a protective intervention against the sequelae of prematurity during this sensitive period of development. Early intervention, such as EVC, is intuitive and easy to implement in the daily care of preterm infants. However, its long-term effects on infant neurodevelopment and maternal sensitivity and stress are still unclear. Trial Registration: NCT04759573, retrospectively registered, 17 February 2021. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The First 1000 Days of Life: Investigating Early Markers for Promoting Healthy Language Development)

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