Research Article
The Predictive Value of Early Childhood Factors for Language Outcome in Pre-school Children
Van Agt HME1*, de Ridder-Sluiter JG2, Van den Brink GA3, de Koning HJ4 and Reep van den Bergh C5
1Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2Dutch Foundation for Child Oncology, The Hague, Netherlands
3Dutch Foundation for The Deaf and Hard of Hearing Child, Amsterdam, Netherlands
4Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Netherlands
5Statistics Netherlands, Heerlen, Netherlands
- *Corresponding Author:
- Van Agt HME
Department of Public Health
Erasmus Rotterdam, Netherlands
Tel: +3110 7043718
E-mail: h.vanagt@erasmusmc.nl
Received Date: July 21, 2015; Accepted Date: December 27, 2015; Published Date: December 30, 2015
Citation: Van Agt HME, de Ridder-Sluiter JG, Van den Brink GA, de Koning HJ, Reep van den Bergh C (2015) The Predictive Value of Early Childhood Factors for Language Outcome in Pre-school Children. J Child Adolesc Behav 3:266. doi:10.4172/2375-4494.1000266
Copyright: © 2015 Van Agt HME, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Objective: To identify the predictive value of early childhood factors for language outcome at ages 2 and 3. Method: A community-based sample of 2542 children, recruited at 18 months during their routine visit of a child health care centre, was followed in a prospective study in the Netherlands. Child and family characteristics and factors for social environment and neurobiological development were tested as predictors of a) language performance (child-test applied by child health care physician) at age 2, b) receptive language (child-test applied by parents) at age 3, c) expressive language (parent report) at age 3, and d) language delay (clinical diagnosis). Results: Predictive of language delay were male gender (OR 0.23; 95% CI: 0.12-0.46), high birth order (1st born, OR 1.85; CI: 0.98-3.52; 2nd born, OR 2.58; CI 1.15-5.79; 3rd born, OR 5.28; CI 1.45-19.3)) and late age (in months) of first walking (OR 1.17; CI: 1.05-1.30). Predictive for favourable language performance for both ages were being a girl, low birth order, early age of first walking, shared reading and singing together. The total predictor set explained only 10-25% of the variance. Conclusions: High risk selection based on a set of predictors might not be a valid strategy for early detection of language delays.