Babies capable of complex babble can become stronger readers

According to a study published October 10, 2018 in the open access journal, the production of early speech babies could predict their subsequent literacy PLOS ONE by Kelly Farquharson of Florida State University and colleagues.

Children with difficulty identifying letters are more likely to develop reading disabilities, but these difficulties can not be discovered before the age of 3 to 5 years. The authors of this study sought to determine whether the assessment of language skills, even earlier, by measuring the complexity of speech in early childhood, could predict future difficulties.

The authors followed nine children from English-speaking American families aged 9 to 30 months. They recorded babbling of each infant during the child's interaction with his primary caregiver, particularly examining the consonant-vowel relationship (CV), a demonstrated measure of the complexity of speech. The authors then met with each child at the age of six to examine their ability to identify letters, a known predictor of later reading disabilities.

They found that children with more complex babbling as infants had better results when they identified specific letters in their later reading test. Although the size of the sample is relatively small and the 9 children participating in this study all develop normally (meaning that the extent of variability is limited), these findings may indicate a link between early speech production and literacy skills.

The authors suggest that, in the future, the complexity of infant babbling may be useful as an earlier predictor of reading deficiencies in children than letter-based testing, allowing parents and professionals to identify and treat children at risk of reading difficulties earlier.

Farquharson adds, "This document provides interesting data for a strong and early link between speech production and literacy skills and is of clinical relevance – we are getting closer to implementing behavioral measures. that could help us identify reading disabilities more quickly. "

Explore further:
When do speech difficulties in children count for literacy?

More information:
Farquharson K, Hogan TP, Hoffman L, Wang J, Green KF, JR Green (2018) A longitudinal study of children's early speech production and identification of the letter later. PLoS ONE 13 (10): e0204006. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204006