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Poster #205 - Infant Temperament Affects Toddler Language Development

Sat, March 23, 12:45 to 2:00pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

An extensive literature links language problems with behavioral difficulties and academic underachievement. For example, Peterson et al. (2013) found that language delays contribute to the development of behavior problems such as inattention-hyperactivity. Language delays during preschool years showed a connection to behavioral deviance, hyperactivity, and reading deficits during grade school (Hinshaw, 1992). Importantly, language performance at 10 months was significantly correlated to cognitive and educational disfunction 10 years later - academic achievement in the 4th grade (Hohm, Jennen-Steinmetz, Schmidt, & Laucht, 2007).

Although less extensive, an emerging literature links temperament to language development. Laake and Bridgett (2014) found that infants’ Positive Affectivity (PA) at 10 months was predictive of future expressive language in a positive direction. In another study, similar results emerged when temperament and language development were measured concurrently at 12 months (Karrass & Braungart-Rieker, 2003). Salley and Dixon (2007) similarly found that PA was associated with superior language ability. The sub-dimensions of PA: Activity Level, High Intensity Pleasure, and Approach were further predictive of expressive language (Laake & Bridgett, 2014). It has been suggested that this relationship is a function of infants higher in both PA and approach behaviors using emerging expressive language to elicit more interactions, thus supporting their language development (Laake & Bridgett, 2014). By comparison, the literature on Negative Affectivity (NA) and language development is often contradictory. Thus, the present study is focused on PA related temperament dimensions, isolating fine-grained contributing factors, deemed important based on prior research and examining these earlier in infancy.

Mothers and infants from Eastern Washington/Northwestern Idaho (N=148) were recruited through birth announcements and a primary prevention program, First Steps. Only families with healthy infants were eligible to participate. Mothers completed the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (Gartstein & Rothbart, 2003), responding to questions regarding infant temperament, at 8 and 12 months of age. Scales associated with the Surgency factor: Activity (ACT), Smiling & Laughter (SL), High Intensity Pleasure (HP), Perceptual Sensitivity (PS), Approach (APP), and Vocal Reactivity (VR) were considered. A follow-up evaluation addressing language development was conducted at 24 months of age. Vocabulary and phrase length scores were obtained via the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000), with 85 of original families (46 male and 39 female children) completing the follow-up surveys. Non-participants either declined to continue with the study (n=23) or could not be reached (n=40), in that either the telephone had been disconnected or the family did not respond to recruitment calls/letters.

Results provide evidence of infant temperament contributing to language development. Length of phrases positively correlated with PS and APP at 8 and 12 months, and VR at 8 months (Table 1). Infants’ vocabulary score was positively correlated with PS at 8 months and 12 months, and APP at 12 months. Further hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that ACT and APP at 8-months uniquely predicted phrase length, whereas PS and APP of 8-month infants contributed to later vocabulary scores. PS at 12-months predicted vocabulary scores, after accounting for covariates and other PA attributes.

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