A world-first study from Perth's The Kids for Child Health Research has identified risk factors for receptive language development in Australian children.
The study looked at the receptive language of 4332 children between four and eight years of age from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC).
Receptive language or vocabulary is the ability to derive meaning from words and builds the foundation for language acquisition and literacy. Low receptive language ability is a risk factor for under-achievement at school.
The results have been published online in the journal PLOS ONE. Lead author Professor Cate Taylor said the research team looked at a wide range of child, maternal and family influences on receptive language development from four to eight years of age.
"We found a range of factors were associated with receptive language delay at four years of age including the mother being from a Non-English Speaking Background (NESB), low school readiness, child not read to at home and the child having four or more siblings," said Professor Taylor.
"However, none of these risks were associated with a lower rate of growth in the child's language from four to eight years."
"In fact, some factors were associated with a higher rate of language growth including maternal NESB, low school readiness and maternal mental health distress."
Professor Taylor said the researchers were surprised to see that the children with lower language abilities at four years of age, had more rapid language development growth than other children.
"Their language grew at a faster rate but they never completely catch-up to their peers," said Professor Taylor.
The research also showed that socio-economic disadvantage was not a risk factor for low receptive vocabulary ability at four years but was the only risk factor associated with a lower rate of growth in receptive vocabulary ability.
"At eight years, the gap between children with and without socio-economic area disadvantage widens with the children from the most socio-economic disadvantage being eight months behind their peers in receptive vocabulary," said Professor Taylor.
"These results are consistent with other studies that have shown that social gradients in children's developmental outcomes increase over time."
Professor Taylor said a whole-of-community approach was needed to tackle language problems in children.
"Children can understand words from around eight months of age," she said. "The more words a child has in their language toolkit, the better they will do at school."
"Community-wide programs are needed to address language problems as it's very difficult to predict which kids will or won't have delay in their language. This is a responsibility for everyone - parents, schools, communities and government."
Citation: Taylor, CL. Christensen, D. Lawrence, D. Mitrou, F. Zubrick, S.R. Risk factors for children's receptive vocabulary development from four to eight years in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. PLOS ONE 10.1371/journal.pone.0073046
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About LSAC
Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) is a major study following the development of 10,000 children and families from all parts of Australia. The study commenced in 2004 with two cohorts - families with 4-5 year old children and families with 0-1 year old infants. Growing Up in Australia is investigating the contribution of children's social, economic and cultural environments to their adjustment and wellbeing. A major aim is to identify policy opportunities for improving support for children and their families and for early intervention and prevention strategies.