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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.