McNeill Brigid, Gillon Gail, Gath Megan, Woodward Lianne
Faculty of Education, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Child Well-Being Research Institute, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Int J Lang Commun Disord. 2025 Jan-Feb;60(1):e13139. doi: 10.1111/1460-6984.13139.
Early childhood is a critical period of language development. Yet less is known about how language growth relates to the development of phoneme awareness and cognitive flexibility during this period.
To examine the longitudinal associations between growth in phonological awareness and cognitive flexibility from 4 to 5 years in relation to three patterns of child language development: early, intermediate and late.
METHODS & PROCEDURES: A sample of 439 four-year-old children were recruited and underwent repeated language, phonological awareness and cognitive flexibility testing to age 5. Children were classified into three language development groups based on their listening comprehension: early, intermediate and late. Group-based trajectory modelling was then used to examine the relations between cognitive flexibility and phonological awareness over time in relation to language outcome.
OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Early language developers were characterized by higher levels and greater improvement in language and phonological awareness skills between 4 and 5 years. Late language developers exhibited slower growth in expressive language development (in addition to lower receptive language at age 4). Intermediate and late language developers showed steeper growth in cognitive flexibility over the study.
CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Findings affirm the interconnected nature of phoneme awareness, cognitive and language skill development in early childhood. Results suggest the importance of targeting skills across literacy and executive functioning/regulatory domains for children with language difficulties.
What is already known on the subject It is already known that language skills are related to self-regulation and phoneme awareness skills. However, it is also important to examine how different patterns of language growth are related to the timing and level of growth in self-regulation and phoneme awareness. Further, it is important to examine the relationship between language development and cognitive flexibility (one component of self-regulation) to understand this relationship more fully. What this paper adds to the existing knowledge This study is novel in its examination of the trajectory of language development and other key foundational literacy variables along with modelling the timing of development across the constructs included in the study. The findings have implications for optimizing the content and timing of approaches designed to enhance literacy development in children with language difficulties. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? The findings suggest that interprofessional approaches across speech-language therapy, education and psychology are important for enhancing literacy outcomes of children with language difficulties. Results also provide support for language intervention approaches to be developed and trialled that target language, cognitive flexibility and phonological awareness in an integrated manner.
幼儿期是语言发展的关键时期。然而，关于这一时期语言发展与音素意识及认知灵活性发展之间的关系，我们所知甚少。
研究4至5岁期间语音意识和认知灵活性发展与三种儿童语言发展模式（早期、中期和晚期）之间的纵向关联。
招募了439名4岁儿童作为样本，并对他们进行了反复的语言、语音意识和认知灵活性测试，直至5岁。根据听力理解能力，将儿童分为三个语言发展组：早期、中期和晚期。然后，使用基于组的轨迹模型来研究认知灵活性与语音意识随时间的关系以及语言发展结果。
早期语言发展者的特点是在4至5岁期间语言和语音意识技能水平更高且提升更大。晚期语言发展者在表达性语言发展方面增长较慢（4岁时接受性语言也较低）。在研究过程中，中期和晚期语言发展者的认知灵活性增长更为显著。
研究结果证实了幼儿期音素意识、认知和语言技能发展之间相互关联的性质。结果表明，对于有语言困难的儿童，针对读写能力和执行功能/调节领域的技能进行干预非常重要。
关于该主题已知的信息 已知语言技能与自我调节和音素意识技能相关。然而，研究不同的语言发展模式如何与自我调节和音素意识的发展时间及水平相关也很重要。此外，研究语言发展与认知灵活性（自我调节的一个组成部分）之间的关系对于更全面地理解这种关系也很重要。本文对现有知识的补充 本研究的新颖之处在于考察了语言发展轨迹以及其他关键的基础读写变量，并对研究中涉及的各结构发展时间进行了建模。研究结果对于优化旨在提高有语言困难儿童读写能力发展的方法内容和时间安排具有启示意义。这项工作的潜在或实际临床意义是什么？研究结果表明，跨言语治疗、教育和心理学的跨专业方法对于提高有语言困难儿童的读写能力成果很重要。结果还为以综合方式针对语言、认知灵活性和语音意识开发和试验语言干预方法提供了支持。
