Study Of NZ Children’s First Words Expected to Finish 2014

First Major Study Into Nz Children’s First Words Expected to Finish Next Year
 
May 2, 2013
 
A University of Canterbury (UC) survey of up to 3000 children, which will help provide the first comprehensive study on early language development in New Zealand, is expected to be finished early next year.
 
UC professor of communication disorders Tom Klee says scant factual information was available about early language development in New Zealand children 16 to 30 months old.
 
``We expect to have comprehensive results later next year which will be helpful to parents and early childhood professionals. The results will also provide an evidence-based clinical assessment that can be used by speech language therapists when evaluating young children with language difficulties,’’ Professor Klee says.
 
``This survey has the potential to help identify developmental problems at an earlier age than can be done at present. More than 900 parents have completed the questionnaire at www.kidswords.org.
 
``Parents from every region of the country except Gisborne have responded so far. The aim is to build up a nationally-representative sample of children by the time the study ends.
 
``To date, 53 percent of the children in the sample are girls, 57 percent are first-borns and five percent are twins. Parents report that 92 percent of the children are of New Zealand European origin, with four percent Maori  and four percent Pacifica, Asian and other backgrounds,’’ Professor Klee says.
 
The UC survey is seeking to find out how many words New Zealand toddlers know by the time they are two and a half years old.
 
New Zealand professionals who work with young children, such as speech language therapists, early childhood educators and developmental psychologists, have had to rely on studies of American, British and Australian children rather than data from New Zealand communities.
 
The comprehensive study will provide information gathered from New Zealand children so that professionals do not have to rely on overseas data any more.
 
``If a child is two and isn’t saying many words yet, or isn’t joining words into small sentences yet, should we be concerned? Should we do something about it? Without knowing what the early language milestones are for children in New Zealand, it’s difficult to assess the situation when a child isn’t talking like other children of his or her age.  It’s difficult to know what advice to give parents.
 
``We don’t know yet how similar our children are to children from other countries because we don’t have research data to draw on yet. When this study is finished we will be able to compare the language development of New Zealand children to children from other countries.’’
 
Professor Klee says as many as 10 to 15 percent of children have difficulties learning to talk. Delays in early talking could sometimes be the first sign of problems in other areas such as hearing, learning or developing relationships with other children and sometimes occur on their own
 
ENDS

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