City Research Online

Abstract

Finding early predictors of later language skills and difficulties is fraught with challenges because of the wide developmental variation in language. Gasparini et al. (Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2023) aimed to address this issue by applying machine learning methods to parent reports taken from a large longitudinal database (Early Language in Victoria Study). Using this approach, they identify two short, straightforward item sets, taken at 24 and 36 months, that can adequately predict language difficulties when children are 11 years of age. Their work represents an exciting step towards earlier recognition and support for children with Developmental Language Disorder. This commentary highlights the advantages and challenges of identifying early predictors of language in this way, and discusses future directions that can build on this important contribution.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Language & Communication Science
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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