1-110 - Predictors of language disorders in populations at risk: The state of the art and beyond

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Children begin learning about their ambient language long before they start speaking. Early phonological and lexical knowledge is thought to provide the foundation on which language is subsequently built. An exciting and relevant line of work explores the predictive value of speech perception measures for communicative disorders. Such research is important because reliable, early measures of language development could play a key role for both theory (e.g., disambiguation of competing explanations for communicative disorders) and clinical applications (i.e., enabling early diagnoses and hence intervention). This symposium convenes specialists working in this research field with complementary expertise, to provide a balanced overview of the state of the art.
The first presenter compares pre-term infants, who are statistically at risk for language delays, and full-term infants in a range of language processing tasks, finding that they differ only on more complex tasks.
The second tests the prediction that the impaired prosodic processing found in individuals in the autism spectrum may also be evident in infants at familial risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
The third talk presents findings demonstrating that a reduced preference for speech over non-speech is predictive of language delay at 24 months in infants at risk for ASD.
The fourth presentation evaluates the hypothesis that category formation is impaired in siblings of children diagnosed with dyslexia.
By including talks for three at-risk populations, this symposium demonstrates the importance of examining early development in these populations, and will provide attendants with key information to evaluate this literature critically.

Sub Unit

• Language, Communication

Chairs

• Athena Vouloumanos, New York University

• Suzanne Curtin, University of Calgary

Individual Presentations

• Early Perceptual Language Milestones in Preterm Infants: Interpreting Data from Behavioral Tasks - Presenting Author: Laura Bosch, Universitat de Barcelona; Jorgina Solé, University of Barcelona; Thais Agut, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Barcelona

• Atypical speech processing by infants at risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder - Presenting Author: Jennifer Ference, University of Calgary; Suzanne Curtin, University of Calgary

• Lack of preference for speech predicts language delay in infants at elevated risk for autism - Presenting Author: Athena Vouloumanos, New York University; Suzanne Curtin, University of Calgary

• Early Speech Perception in Infants with a Familial Risk of Dyslexia - Presenting Author: Elise de Bree, University of Amsterdam; Annemarie Kerkhoff, Utrecht University; Maartje de Klerk, Utrecht University: Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS; Desiree Capel, Utrecht University; Frank Wijnen, Utrecht University: Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS