Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T18:19:03.243Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Language Development

Individual Differences in a Social Context

from Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2022

By
James Law ,
Sheena Reilly  and
Cristina McKean
Edited by
James Law ,
Sheena Reilly  and
Cristina McKean
James Law
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Sheena Reilly
Affiliation:
Griffith University, Queensland
Cristina McKean
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Get access

Summary

Language development in young children is clearly associated with the context in which children grow up. Of course, it has a strong biological developmental element but it is the interaction between the social and the developmental that is the focus of this book. Children’s language skills vary considerably at any one point in their development but especially over time. This chapter introduces the reader to some of the key concepts in the book and, in particular, focuses on how this interaction works for children with skills at the lower end of the language distribution, namely children with developmental language disorders, and how the patterns of these skills change over time. Key to understanding these issues is the need to follow large representative national samples of children for extended periods of time and assessing their performance at regular intervals, a feature of many chapters in the book. The book is targeted at academic, professional and an ‘informed’ public audience. The academic audience will include linguists, psychologists, speech and language pathologists, public health professionals and paediatricians and their equivalent in different countries. But it will also be important for health, education and public policy professionals.

Keywords

Childlanguagevariabilitychange over timelongitudinal datasocial determinantsthe big word gaplife course
Type
Chapter
Information
Language Development
Individual Differences in a Social Context
 , pp. 3 - 22
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bishop, D. V. M. (2014). Ten questions about terminology for children with unexplained language problems. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 49, 381–415. doi:10.1111/1460-6984.12101Google Scholar
Bishop, D. V. M., Snowling, M. J., Thompson, P. A., Greenhalgh, T., & CATALISE Consortium. (2016a). CATALISE: A multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study of problems with language development. Phase 2. Terminology. PeerJ Preprints, 4, e2484v1 doi:10.7287/peerj.preprints.2484v1Google Scholar
Bishop, D. V. M., Snowling, M. J., Thompson, P. A., Greenhalgh, T., & CATALISE Consortium. (2016b). CATALISE: A multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study. Identifying language impairments in children. PLOS One, 11(7), doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0158753CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, U. (Ed.). (2005). Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.Google Scholar
Brushe, M. E., Lynch, J. W., Reilly, S., Melhuish, E., & Brinkman, S. A. (2020). How many words are Australian children hearing in the first year of life? BMC Pediatrics 20, 52. doi:10.1186/s12887-020-1946-0Google Scholar
Brushe, M. E., Lynch, J. W., Reilly, S., Melhuish, E., & Brinkman, S. A. (2021). The Word Gap: At what age does it emerge? Results from a prospective cohort study. International Journal of Epidemiology, 50(1), dyab168.101. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyab168.101Google Scholar
Clinton, H. (2013). Closing the ‘word gap’. Clinton Foundation. https://raisingareaderma.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Closing-the-Word-Gap-Hillary-Clinton-Too-Small-To-Fail.pdfGoogle Scholar
Deacon, T. (1997). The symbolic species: The co-evolution of language and the human brain. Harmondsworth: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Deary, I. J. (2013). Intelligence. Current Biology, 23, R673–R676.Google Scholar
Ellis Weismer, S. (2007). Typical talkers, late talkers, and children with specific language impairment: A language endowment spectrum. In Paul, R. (Ed.), The influence of developmental perspectives on research and practice in communication disorders: A festschrift for Robin S. Chapman (pp. 83–102). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Feldman, J. A. (2008). From molecule to metaphor: A neural theory of language Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Fernald, A., Marchman, V. A., & Weisleder, A. (2013). SES differences in language processing skill and vocabulary are evident at 18 months. Developmental Science, 16, 234–248. doi:10.1111/desc.12019Google Scholar
Fernald, A., & Weisleder, A. (2015). Twenty years after ‘meaningful differences’, it’s time to reframe the ‘deficit’ debate about the importance of children’s early language experience. Human Development, 58, 1–4. doi:10.1159/000375515Google Scholar
Foundation for Young Australians. (2011). How young people are faring 2011. A national report on the learning and work situation of young Australians. www.fya.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/HYPAF-2011-Full_Report.pdfGoogle Scholar
Friend, A., DeFries, J., & Olson, R. (2008). Parental education moderates genetic influences on reading disability. Psychological Science, 19(11), 1124–1130.Google Scholar
Golinkoff, R. M., Hoff, E., Rowe, M. L., Tamis‐LeMonda, C. S., & Hirsh‐Pasek, K. (2019). Language matters: Denying the existence of the 30‐million‐word gap has serious consequences. Child Development, 90, 985–992. doi:10.1111/cdev.13128Google Scholar
Hart, B., & Risley, T. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children Boston, MA: Paul Brookes.Google Scholar
Industry Skills Councils (Australia). (2011). No more excuses: An industry response to the language literacy and numeracy challenge. Industry Skills Councils (Australia).Google Scholar
Jablonka, E., & Lamb, M. J. (2014). Evolution in four dimensions: Genetic, epigenetic, behavioural and symbolic variation in the history of life. London: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kuchirko, Y. (2017). On differences and deficits: A critique of the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of the word gap. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 19(4), 533–562. doi:10.1177/1468798417747029Google Scholar
Law, J., Charlton, J., & Asmussen, K. (2017). Child language as a wellbeing indicator. London: Early Intervention Foundation.Google Scholar
Law, J., Levickis, P., Goldfeld, S., McKean, C., & Reilly, S. (2018). Policy brief: Language development in a public health context. Melbourne: Centre for Research Excellence.Google Scholar
Law, J., Reilly, S., & Snow, P. (2013). Child speech, language and communication need in the context of public health: A new direction for the speech and language therapy profession. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 48(5), 486–496.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Law, J., Rush, R., Anandan, C., Cox, M., & Wood, R. (2012). Predicting language change between three and five years and its implications for early identification: Findings from the Millennium Cohort Study Pediatrics, 130, 1. doi:10.1542/peds.2011-167Google Scholar
Law, J., Tomblin, J. B., & Zhang, X. (2008). Characterising the growth trajectories of language impaired children between seven and eleven years. Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 51, 739–750.Google Scholar
Lenneberg, E. H. (1967). Biological foundations of language. London: Wiley.Google Scholar
Maggi, S., Irwin, L., Siddiqi, A., & Hertzman, C. (2010). The social determinants of early child development: An overview. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 46(11), 627–635.Google Scholar
Marmot, M. (2010). The Marmot Review. Fair society, healthy lives: Strategic review of health inequalities in England post 2010. London: The Marmot Review.Google Scholar
McKean, C., Law, J., Morgan, A., & Reilly, S. (2018). Developmental language disorder. In Rueschemeyer, S. & Gaskell, G. M. (Eds.), Oxford handbook of psycholinguistics, 2nd ed. (pp. 814–839). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McKean, C., Wraith, D., Eadie, P., Cook, F., Mensah, F., & Reilly, S. (2017). Subgroups in language trajectories from 4 to 11 years: The nature and predictors of stable, improving and decreasing language trajectory groups. Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 58, 1081–1091. doi:10.1111/jcpp.12790Google Scholar
Reilly, S., Tomblin, B., Law, J., McKean, C., Mensah, F., Morgan, A., … Wake, M. (2014). Specific language impairment: A convenient label for whom? International Journal of Language and Communication Disorder, 49, 416–451. doi:10.1111/1460-6984.12102Google Scholar
Rosselli, M., Ardila, A., Matute, E., & Vélez-Uribe, I. (2014). Language development across the life span: A neuropsychological/neuroimaging perspective. Neuroscience Journal, 2014, 85237. doi:10.1155/2014/585237Google Scholar
Rowe, D., Jacobson, K., & Van Den Oord, E. (1999). Genetic and environmental influences on vocabulary IQ: Parental education level as moderator. Child Development, 70(5), 1151–1162.Google Scholar
Ruben, R. (2000). Redefining the survival of the fittest: Communication disorders in the 21st century. The Laryngoscope, 110, 241–245.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwab, K. (2015). The fourth industrial revolution: What it means and how to respond. Foreign Affairs, 12 December. www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2015-12-12/fourth-industrial-revolutionGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2019). Becoming human: A theory of ontogeny. London: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wasik, B. A., & Hindman, A. H. (2015). Talk alone won’t close the 30-million word gap. Phi Delta Kappan, 96(6), 50–54. doi:10.1177/0031721715575300Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×