summary

The article “Language Development in Infants and Toddlers With Fragile X Syndrome: Change Over Time and the Role of Attention” from the American Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities discusses a study investigating the change in language abilities of infants and toddlers with Fragile X Syndrome compared with children who develop normally. “As the leading inherited cause of intellectual disability, Fragile X Syndrome results in significant language impairments” (Kover, McCary, Ingram, Hatton, Roberts, 2015). Prior to this study, much of the research conducted on Fragile X Syndrome was focused on older children. “The goal of the current study was to contribute to what is known about attention and language in individuals with FXS by examining visual attention as a predictor of language and communication abilities over time in infants and toddlers with FXS” (Kover, McCary, Ingram, Hatton, Roberts, 2015).

Participants

The study included 13 males with Fragile X Syndrome who were assessed four times, once at 9 months, 12 months, 18 months, and 24 months of age. It also included 11 typically developing males assessed at 12 months of age. Infants were considered typically developing if they had no current or family history of developmental concerns. All of the participants were Caucasian and lived within the United States (Kover, et al., 2015).

Results

“The results suggested that early attention does not predict later language development, with some measures of language and communication during the second year of life” (Kover, et al., 2015). There was also a correlation found between visual attention disabilities and delays in language development (Kover, et al., 2015). A moderate positive correlation was also found regarding the language and communication assessments of infants 9 to 24 months with Fragile X Syndrome. It was also found that the duration of gaze on a toy stimulus at 12 months negatively predicted vocabulary words understood and words produced at 24 months of age (Kover, et al., 2015), this meaning that a more aberrant attention was correlated to less advanced communicative behavior later in life. In terms of language delay, children with Fragile X Syndrome were found to have significant delays in language ability by 12 months compared with typically developing children, and at 18 months compared to development-level expectations. At 18 months, children with Fragile X Syndrome were scoring similar to 12-month-old typically developing infants on the Visual Reception subtest (Kover, et al., 2015).

Conclusion

Overall findings of this study showed that infants with Fragile X Syndrome do continue to develop their language abilities between the ages of 9 months and 24 months. Through the comparisons between infants with Fragile X Syndrome and typically developing infants, it was found that Fragile X Syndrome infants were farther behind in terms of language development. It was also found that children with Fragile X Syndrome continued to fall farther behind as they aged, when compared to their typically developing peers. After conducting this research, researchers believe that future research should be aimed at identifying language-learning mechanisms where visual attention impacts language understanding in infants with Fragile X Syndrome, focusing specifically on vocabulary (Kover, et al., 2015).

Works Cited

Kover, S., McCary, L., Ingram, A., Hatton, D., Roberts, J. (2015, March 15). Language Development in Infants and Toddlers with Fragile X Syndrome: Change Over Time and the Role of Attention. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Volume 120 (2), 125-144.