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Brain Sciences
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The Development of Communication and Language: Social, Environmental, and Neurobiological...
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The Development of Communication and Language: Social, Environmental, and Neurobiological Influences

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Neurolinguistics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 May 2021) | Viewed by 54106

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Julia Irwin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT 06511, USA ; Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, CT 06515, USA
Interests: communication and language development; multisensory perception; speech perception and production; developmental disability

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Language development plays a central role in social, cognitive, and academic functioning. Although language is often studied as an isolated and independent construct, language development occurs within a rich framework. A range of dynamic environmental and neurobiological constraints contribute to its progression, including the social milieu, multisensory processes, ambient language exposure and neurodiversity in the child.

Because more research is required to advance our scientific understanding of contextualized language development from infancy to early school age, in this Special Issue we look forward to receiving neurobiologically informed original papers and reviews related (but not limited) to the following topics:

  • Social contributors to language outcomes, such as caregiver input
  • Multimodal/multisensory approaches for understanding the development of language
  • The impact of the ambient language environment, including bilingual and multilingual learners
  • The role of neurodiversity in early communication and language

We want to bring together a set of cutting-edge research articles that attempt to take these topics forward. The contribution may include a mixture of theoretical, conceptual, and empirical cases, but must very clearly address one or more of the Special Issue topics.

We also solicit original, unpublished empirical studies in animals and humans. Novel neurobiological techniques and methods for assessing early language are invited. Review papers are also welcome, but as the Special Issue may include a number of invited reviews, these should be discussed with the editors at an early stage to avoid duplication. Also, please ask the editor if you are uncertain whether a report of your research would be suitable for inclusion.

Dr. Julia Irwin
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • communication
  • language development
  • speech perception
  • developmental disability
  • multisensory perception
  • bilingualism
  • infant and child development

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 1718 KiB  
Article
Maternal Depression Affects Infants’ Lexical Processing Abilities in the Second Year of Life
by Ruth Brookman, Marina Kalashnikova, Janet Conti, Nan Xu Rattanasone, Kerry-Ann Grant, Katherine Demuth and Denis Burnham
Brain Sci. 2020, 10(12), 977; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10120977 - 12 Dec 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3286
Abstract
Maternal depression and anxiety have been proposed to increase the risk of adverse outcomes of language development in the early years of life. This study investigated the effects of maternal depression and anxiety on language development using two approaches: (i) a categorical approach [...] Read more.
Maternal depression and anxiety have been proposed to increase the risk of adverse outcomes of language development in the early years of life. This study investigated the effects of maternal depression and anxiety on language development using two approaches: (i) a categorical approach that compared lexical abilities in two groups of children, a risk group (mothers with clinical-level symptomatology) and a control non-risk group, and (ii) a continuous approach that assessed the relation between individual mothers’ clinical and subclinical symptomatology and their infants’ lexical abilities. Infants’ lexical abilities were assessed at 18 months of age using an objective lexical processing measure and a parental report of expressive vocabulary. Infants in the risk group exhibited lower lexical processing abilities compared to controls, and maternal depression scores were negatively correlated to infants’ lexical processing and vocabulary measures. Furthermore, maternal depression (not anxiety) explained the variance in infants’ individual lexical processing performance above the variance explained by their individual expressive vocabulary size. These results suggest that significant differences are emerging in 18-month-old infants’ lexical processing abilities, and this appears to be related, in part, to their mothers’ depression and anxiety symptomatology during the postnatal period. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Development of Communication and Language: Social, Environmental, and Neurobiological Influences)
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Review

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36 pages, 1490 KiB  
Review
Efficacy of the Treatment of Developmental Language Disorder: A Systematic Review
by Sara Rinaldi, Maria Cristina Caselli, Valentina Cofelice, Simonetta D’Amico, Anna Giulia De Cagno, Giuseppina Della Corte, Maria Valeria Di Martino, Brigida Di Costanzo, Maria Chiara Levorato, Roberta Penge, Tiziana Rossetto, Alessandra Sansavini, Simona Vecchi and Pierluigi Zoccolotti
Brain Sci. 2021, 11(3), 407; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11030407 - 23 Mar 2021
Cited by 45 | Viewed by 26564
Abstract
Background. Language disorder is the most frequent developmental disorder in childhood and it has a significant negative impact on children’s development. The goal of the present review was to systematically analyze the effectiveness of interventions in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) from [...] Read more.
Background. Language disorder is the most frequent developmental disorder in childhood and it has a significant negative impact on children’s development. The goal of the present review was to systematically analyze the effectiveness of interventions in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) from an evidence-based perspective. Methods. We considered systematic reviews, meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), control group cohort studies on any type of intervention aimed at improving children’s skills in the phono-articulatory, phonological, semantic-lexical, and morpho-syntactic fields in preschool and primary school children (up to eight years of age) that were diagnosed with DLD. We identified 27 full-length studies, 26 RCT and one review. Results. Early intensive intervention in three- and four-year-old children has a positive effect on phonological expressive and receptive skills and acquisitions are maintained in the medium term. Less evidence is available on the treatment of expressive vocabulary (and no evidence on receptive vocabulary). Intervention on morphological and syntactic skills has effective results on expressive (but not receptive) skills; however, a number of inconsistent results have also been reported. Only one study reports a positive effect of treatment on inferential narrative skills. Limited evidence is also available on the treatment of meta-phonological skills. More studies investigated the effectiveness of interventions on general language skills, which now appears as a promising area of investigation, even though results are not all consistent. Conclusions. The effectiveness of interventions over expressive and receptive phonological skills, morpho-syntactic skills, as well as inferential skills in narrative context underscores the importance that these trainings be implemented in children with DLD. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Development of Communication and Language: Social, Environmental, and Neurobiological Influences)
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Other

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38 pages, 900 KiB  
Systematic Review
Developmental Language Disorder: Early Predictors, Age for the Diagnosis, and Diagnostic Tools. A Scoping Review
by Alessandra Sansavini, Maria Elena Favilla, Maria Teresa Guasti, Andrea Marini, Stefania Millepiedi, Maria Valeria Di Martino, Simona Vecchi, Nadia Battajon, Laura Bertolo, Olga Capirci, Barbara Carretti, Maria Paola Colatei, Cristina Frioni, Luigi Marotta, Sara Massa, Letizia Michelazzo, Chiara Pecini, Silvia Piazzalunga, Manuela Pieretti, Pasquale Rinaldi, Renata Salvadorini, Cristiano Termine, Mariagrazia Zuccarini, Simonetta D’Amico, Anna Giulia De Cagno, Maria Chiara Levorato, Tiziana Rossetto and Maria Luisa Lorussoadd Show full author list remove Hide full author list
Brain Sci. 2021, 11(5), 654; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11050654 - 17 May 2021
Cited by 82 | Viewed by 23202
Abstract
Background. Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is frequent in childhood and may have long-term sequelae. By employing an evidence-based approach, this scoping review aims at identifying (a) early predictors of DLD; (b) the optimal age range for the use of screening and diagnostic tools; [...] Read more.
Background. Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is frequent in childhood and may have long-term sequelae. By employing an evidence-based approach, this scoping review aims at identifying (a) early predictors of DLD; (b) the optimal age range for the use of screening and diagnostic tools; (c) effective diagnostic tools in preschool children. Methods. We considered systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and primary observational studies with control groups on predictive, sensitivity and specificity values of screening and diagnostic tools and psycholinguistic measures for the assessment of DLD in preschool children. We identified 37 studies, consisting of 10 systematic reviews and 27 primary studies. Results. Delay in gesture production, receptive and/or expressive vocabulary, syntactic comprehension, or word combination up to 30 months emerged as early predictors of DLD, a family history of DLD appeared to be a major risk factor, and low socioeconomic status and environmental input were reported as risk factors with lower predictive power. Optimal time for screening is suggested between age 2 and 3, for diagnosis around age 4. Because of the high variability of sensitivity and specificity values, joint use of standardized and psycholinguistic measures is suggested to increase diagnostic accuracy. Conclusions. Monitoring risk situations and employing caregivers’ reports, clinical assessment and multiple linguistic measures are fundamental for an early identification of DLD and timely interventions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Development of Communication and Language: Social, Environmental, and Neurobiological Influences)
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