Early word-object associations and later language development

Early language skills vary considerably across children, especially before the age of about two years. Thus, it can be difficult to distinguish between 'late bloomers' and children who show a language delay or impairment. Here we present the results of a longitudinal study wherein toddlers' performance on a looking-time-based 'Switch' task of word-object association (Stager & Werker, 1997) was related to the children's later language skills. Word-object association performance at 17 or 20 months was significantly related to scores on some standardized tests of language comprehension and production up to two and a half years later. The implications of these results for further early identification research are discussed. Copyright © 2007 SAGE Publications.