Journal of Child Language

Table of Contents - 2008 - Volume 35, Issue 03  

Brief Research Report

The Early Language in Victoria Study: predicting vocabulary at age one and two years from gesture and object use

E. L. BAVINa1 c1, M. PRIORa2, S. REILLYa3, L. BRETHERTONa4, J. WILLIAMSa5, P. EADIEa6, Y. BARRETTa7 and O. C. UKOUMUNNEa8

a1 School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University

a2 School of Behavioural Sciences, University of Melbourne

a3 Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne and Speech Pathology Department, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne

a4 Psychology Department, The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne

a5 Centre for Community Child Health & Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne

a6 Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne

a7 Speech Pathology Department, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne

a8 Department of Paediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne and Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne

ABSTRACT

The Macarthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) have been used widely to document early communicative development. The paper reports on a large community sample of 1,447 children recruited from low, middle and high socioeconomic (SES) areas across metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. Regression analyses were conducted to determine the extent to which communicative behaviours reported at 0 ; 8 and 1 ; 0 predicted vocabulary development at 1 ; 0 and 2 ; 0. In support of previous findings with smaller, often less representative samples, gesture and object use at 1 ; 0 were better predictors of 2 ; 0 vocabulary than were gesture and object use at 0 ; 8. At 1 ; 0, children from the lower SES groups were reported to understand more words than children from the higher SES groups, but there were no SES differences for words produced at 1 ; 0 or 2 ; 0. The findings add to our understanding of the variability in the development of early communicative behaviours.

(Received September 20 2006)

(Revised November 21 2007)

Correspondence:

c1 Address for correpondence: Edith L. Bavin, School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia. Tel: +61 3 9479 2530.

Footnotes

* The ELVS research was undertaken with a grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). O. C. Ukoumunne's postdoctoral position is funded by an NHMRC Population Health Capacity Building Grant (436914).