Purpose: Many child-, hearing-, and device-related factors contribute to spoken language outcomes in children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH). Recently, the family environment has been implicated as another contributing factor in language development. However, most studies on the role of families in language outcomes of children who are DHH…

Background: Children born with cleft palate ± lip (CP ± L) are at risk of speech sound disorder (SSD). Up to 40% continue to have SSD at age 5-6 years. These difficulties are typically described as articulatory in nature and often include cleft speech characteristics (CSC) hypothesized to result from structural differences. In non-CP ± L SSD…

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and epilepsy represent a comorbidity that negatively influences the proper development of linguistic competencies, particularly in receptive language, in the pediatric population. This group displays impairments in the auditory comprehension of both simple and complex grammatical structures, significantly limiting…

Purpose: The primary aim of the study was to examine the association between early childhood practitioners' use of language facilitation strategies during interactive book reading of informational texts related to science and the language skills of preschool children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Method: Twenty-four practitioners (12…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine English reading comprehension skills in Spanish-English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). In particular, we examined the contribution of Spanish and English oral language skills and of the language of instruction (i.e., English only or dual language) to…

Purpose: This study addresses the challenge of identifying developmental language disorder (DLD) in bilingual children. Despite the broad range of language measurements documented in the literature, their individual contribution to a DLD diagnosis remains unclear. Administrating a high number of tests will yield a holistic child view, but it needs…

Background and aims: A substantial minority of autistic individuals score within typical ranges on standard language tests, suggesting that autism does not necessarily affect language acquisition. This idea is reflected in current diagnostic criteria for autism, wherein language impairment is no longer included. However, some work has suggested…

The current diagnostic criteria for the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) include the possibility to specify concomitant language difficulties. Purpose: Our main aim was to explore whether children with ASD-Level 1 (ASD-L1) present difficulties in the acquisition of structural language, as little work has been done in this regard so far. As a…

While there is some evidence of a gap in English writing achievement between children with English as an additional language (EAL) compared to their monolingual English-speaking (EL1) peers, the source of this gap remains unclear. This study examines whether writing presents a specific challenge for children with EAL beyond their oral language and…

Background: Research has demonstrated that distinct oral language skills contribute unique variance to text comprehension in students from second grade onward. This study examined these relationships for kindergarten students whose comprehension is often assumed to be determined by word decoding skills. Method: Eighty-eight kindergarten students…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the growth of previously established clinical markers of developmental language disorder (DLD) in Spanish-speaking bilingual children with and without DLD. Method: Forty-three bilingual children with DLD and 57 typically developing children were tested 3 times over a 2-year period. Their average…

Oral language abilities have been reported to be related to reading development. This relationship seems to be determined by orthographic systems and reading development. Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) show reading difficulties, although most studies focus on reading comprehension. The present study has two main objectives: to…

Strong oral language skills are foundational for literacy development and begin before a child enters formal schooling. Oral language development has been related to pretend play abilities in children. Children, particularly those from disadvantaged areas, who enter school with low pretend play levels and oral language abilities, are at risk for…

Purpose: Parent engagement is a critical component of optimizing services for young children with disabilities, including those with language disorders. Without training, however, many parents may lack the knowledge and skills to effectively facilitate their children's language development during the essential early childhood years. The Parents…

We evaluated the efficacy of Early Language Comprehension Individualized Instruction (ELCII), a supplemental computer-based early language comprehension intervention, in improving kindergarten students' inference making performance. In Study 1, students completed ELCII modules over nine weeks, whereas a business-as-usual control group engaged in…