Predictive validity of verbal and non-verbal communication and mother-child turn-taking at 12 months on language outcomes at 24 and 36 months in a cohort of infants experiencing adversity: a preliminary study.

Findings reconfirm the difficulty in early identification of children at risk of later language difficulties. All 12-month measures were more accurate at identifying those children who will have better language than those children who will not. As fluency and connectedness was the only measure to predict 24- and 36-month language in adjusted regression models, it may be an important factor to consider when measuring early language skills for infants experiencing adversity. Future research could combine observational measures of early communication and fluency and connectedness with other predictors of language to try to increase prediction accuracy.