Department of Education, Roma Tre University, Via Milazzo 11/B, 0186, Roma, Italy.
Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, National Research Council, Via Nomentana 56, 0186, Rome, Italy.
Res Dev Disabil. 2018 Apr;75:40-48. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2018.02.006. Epub 2018 Feb 24.
This study analyzed the communicative, linguistic and symbolic skills in Italian Late Talking (LT) toddlers. Thirty-five participants were identified through a language-screening program at 29 months by using the Italian version of MB-CDI W&S Short Form. Cognitive, communicative and linguistic skills were evaluated 5 later, with indirect and direct tools. The MB-CDI WS Short Form revealed, in LT children, weakness in gesture production, decontextualized comprehension, verbal imitation, symbolic play, and phonological accuracy. Our results confirmed lexical size at 29 months is the predictive factor to identify language delay at 34 months. The clinical assessment at 34 months confirmed that 89% of the LT children had a vocabulary size below the 10th percentile on the MB-CDI Complete Form. On a structured task, LT children showed lexical comprehension more preserved than lexical production, and more advanced skills in nouns than in predicates. Weakness in socioconversational abilities emerged. Correlation among maternal education, expressive vocabulary and socio-conversational competence in LT children was evidenced. Strong association among cognitive, communicative and linguistic skills were documented.
本研究分析了意大利语迟语（LT）幼儿的交际、语言和符号技能。35 名参与者通过在 29 个月时使用意大利语版 MB-CDI W&S 短表进行语言筛查项目确定。5 个月后，使用间接和直接工具评估认知、交际和语言技能。MB-CDI WS 短表显示，LT 儿童在手势生成、非情境化理解、言语模仿、象征性游戏和语音准确性方面存在弱点。我们的研究结果证实，29 个月时的词汇量是 34 个月时语言延迟的预测因素。34 个月时的临床评估证实，89%的 LT 儿童的词汇量低于 MB-CDI 完整形式的第 10 个百分位数。在一项结构化任务中，LT 儿童表现出词汇理解能力比词汇生成能力更强，名词技能比谓词技能更先进。社会交际能力的弱点显现出来。LT 儿童的母亲教育、表达性词汇和社会交际能力之间存在相关性。还记录了认知、交际和语言技能之间的强关联。
