Browsing by Author "Virtanen, Saija"

Objectives. Prelinguistic development is a part of the continuum of linguistic development and refers to a period when speech is not yet the child's primary means of communication. Prelinguistic skills include several non-linguistic modes of interaction such as pronunciation, gestures, facial expressions, and the use of gaze. Although temperament and developmental dyslexia have been found to affect later linguistic development, it is still poorly understood how temperament and dyslexia together and separately influence prelinguistic development. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether early temperament is associated to prelinguistic development and whether the association is different in children with familial risk of dyslexia and in typically developing children. For the first research question, it was hypothesized that the temperament dimensions of surgency and regulation capacity are related to prelinguistic skills. For the second research question, no hypothesis was set, as the phenomenon has not been previously studied. Methods. The research data comes from the DyslexiaBaby project, which studies the linguistic development of children, especially in families with dyslexia. 148 children were selected for the sample of this study. Exclusion criteria included learning disabilities, ADHD and language disorders other than dyslexia in parents. Data from six- and 12-month follow-up points were used as data. At six months of age, parents assessed their children’s temperament using the IBQ-R-VSF questionnaire based on Rothbart’s temperament theory, and at 12 months of age, they assessed their children’s prelinguistic skills using the ESIKKO questionnaire. The association of temperament and familial risk of dyslexia with prelinguistic skills was examined by several linear regression analyzes. Results. Of the three temperament dimensions, regulation capacity was related to communication composite and surgency was related to prelinguistic skills as a whole. None of the temperament dimensions were related to expressive speech or symbolic composite. Mild, moderate or severe risk of dyslexia was found to be associated with communication composite but not with other aspects of prelinguistic development. Conclusions. For temperament the results were in line with the hypothesis, although the study controlled the effect of child sex, duration of maternal education and duration of pregnancy. Since temperament is formed by several traits, it would be good to consider the possible interactions of temperament dimensions in further research. Regarding the risk of dyslexia, the results are new and partly contrary to the underlying assumptions, so it would be important to examine whether the result can be replicated in other studies.