Infants & Young Children
Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 158–171
Copyright C 2012 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Factors Associated With
Expressive and Receptive
Language in French-Speaking
Toddlers Clinically Diagnosed
With Language Delay
Audette Sylvestre, PhD; Chantal Desmarais, PhD;
Franc ¸ois Meyer, PhD; Isabelle Bairati, PhD;
Nancie Rouleau, PhD; Chantal M´ erette, PhD
The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine child and environmental factors known to
be associated to language development and how they relate to results in expressive vocabulary,
expressive language, and receptive language in language-delayed toddlers. The cross-sectional
data on 96 French-speaking children aged 18–36 months were gathered at the point of entry
into a longitudinal study of 2-year-old children displaying language delay. Measures of language,
child development, and child and environmental factors were administered. When several factors
individually associated with language development were considered concurrently, cognitive devel-
opment was consistently associated with the outcomes. Other child factors, such as male gender
and age, were also retained in the regression model explaining expressive vocabulary, whereas
only age was added in the model explaining expressive language. Two environmental factors
were involved in receptive language; that is, parental education and parental stress accounted for
8% of the variance. Factors linked to development varied across language modalities such that
parental education and parental stress were related to comprehension but not to production. The
findings suggest a strong biological trajectory for expressive language development and vocabu-
lary production, which are not affected by environmental factors. Key words: environmental
factors, expressive language, French language, language delay, receptive language, toddlers,
vocabulary
Author Affiliations: D´ epartement de r´ eadaptation,
Programme de maˆ ıtrise en orthophonie, Universit´ e
Laval, Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche en
R´ eadaptation et Int´ egration Sociale, Qu´ ebec, Canada
(Drs Sylvestre and Desmarais); D´ epartement de
m´ edecine sociale et pr´ eventive, Universit´ e Laval,
Centre de Recherche L’Hˆ otel-Dieu-de-Qu´ ebec, Qu´ ebec,
Canada (Dr Meyer); D´ epartement de chirurgie,
Universit´ e Laval and Direction de Sant´ e publique de
la Capitale-Nationale, Qu´ ebec, Canada (Dr Bairati);
´
Ecole de psychologie (Dr Rouleau) and D´ epartement
de psychiatrie (Dr Merette), Universit´ e Laval, Centre
de Recherche Universit´ e Laval—Robert Giffard,
Qu´ ebec, Canada.
This study was supported by Grant 6472 from the Fonds
de la recherche en sant´ e du Qu´ ebec (Quebec Fund for
Health Research).
The authors thank Lyne Champoux, Karine Messier,
H´ el` ene Cr´ epeau, Olga Gordynska, Isabel Moreau, and
numerous research assistants as well as statistics con-
sultants for their assistance. They also thank the SLPs
who collaborated in the recruitment of participants
and the children and parents who generously gave of
their time to participate in this study.
The authors have disclosed that they have no signif-
icant relationships with, or financial interest in, any
commercial companies pertaining to this article.
Correspondence: Audette Sylvestre, PhD, D´ epartement
de r´ eadaptation, Programme de maˆ ıtrise en ortho-
phonie, Pavillon Ferdinand-Vandry, Universit´ e Laval,
1050, avenue de la M´ edecine, Qu´ ebec, QC, Canada G1V
0A6 (audette.sylvestre@rea.ulaval.ca).
DOI: 10.1097/IYC.0b013e31823dca22
Copyright © 2012 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
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