Search
Research
Children's language development 0-9 years. In Growing up in Australia:Language development is one of the most important developmental accomplishments of early childhood and is the foundation for literacy, educational...
Research
Duration of breast-feeding and language ability to middle childhoodThere is controversy over whether increased breast-feeding duration has long-term benefits for language development.
Research
Language outcomes of 7-year-old children with or without a history of late language emergence at 24 monthsThe aim of this study was to investigate the language outcomes of 7-year-old children with and without a history of late language emergence at 24 months.
News & Events
ORIGINS Project reaches key milestoneThe ORIGINS Project, a collaboration between The Kids and the Joondalup Health Campus, has achieved a major milestone – recruiting its 1000th family.
The Human Development and Community Wellbeing Team conducts research across the lifespan from conception, childhood, and youth to adulthood and the social determinants that impact and influence outcomes. The team’s focus is on the broader life course of individuals and communities within the family, school, and online environments, and includes economic evaluation of programs and outcomes.
Research
Screen Time and Parent-Child Talk When Children Are Aged 12 to 36 MonthsGrowing up in a language-rich home environment is important for children's language development in the early years. The concept of "technoference" (technology-based interference) suggests that screen time may be interfering with opportunities for talk and interactions between parent and child; however, limited longitudinal evidence exists exploring this association.
Research
Caregiver sensitivity predicts infant language use, and infant language complexity predicts caregiver language complexity, in the context of possible emerging autismWhile theory supports bidirectional effects between caregiver sensitivity and language use, and infant language acquisition-both caregiver-to-infant and also infant-to-caregiver effects-empirical research has chiefly explored the former unidirectional path. In the context of infants showing early signs of autism, we investigated prospective bidirectional associations with 6-min free-play interaction samples collected for 103 caregivers and their infants (mean age 12-months; and followed up 6-months later).
Research
Arcuate fasciculus and pre-reading language development in children with prenatal alcohol exposurePrenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) contributes to widespread neurodevelopmental challenges, including reading, and has been associated with altered white matter. Here, we aimed to investigate whether arcuate fasciculus development is associated with pre-reading language skills in young children with PAE.
Research
Parent–child book reading across early childhood and child vocabulary in the early school yearsThe current study investigated the extent to which low levels of joint attention in infancy and parent-child book reading across early childhood increase the...
Research
Robustness, risk and responsivity in early language acquisitionLanguage is a robust developmental phenomenon, characterised by rapid and prodigious growth.