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Do late-talking toddlers turn out to have reading difficulties a decade later?

  • Part III Language Development And Reading Disabilities
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Abstract

Language and reading outcomes at age 13 were examined in a sample of 22 children who were late talkers as toddlers. The late talkers, all of whom had normal nonverbal ability and age-adequate receptive language at intake (24-to-31 months), were compared to a group of 14 typically developing children similar at intake on age, SES, and nonverbal ability. Late talkers had significantly poorer vocabulary, grammar, reading/spelling, and verbal memory skills at age 13, although as a group, they generally performed in the average range on most language and academic tasks. The findings suggest that slow early language development reflects a predisposition for slower acquisition and lower asymptotic performance in a wide range of language-related skills into adolescence.

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Correspondence to Leslie Rescorla.

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Rescorla, L. Do late-talking toddlers turn out to have reading difficulties a decade later?. Annals of Dyslexia 50, 85–102 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-000-0018-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-000-0018-2

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