Beyond first steps: examining associations between early motor skills and language outcomes in late talkers (LT)
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
In the first three years of life, children experience rapid growth in expressive language, progressing from simple speech sounds and gestures to complex utterances and conversational exchanges. However, late talkers (LTs), fail to meet these milestones, and may go on to experience persistent language disorders or receive diagnoses including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present study aimed to examine (1) the associations between 24-month abilities (gross motor, fine motor, and language skills) and expressive language outcomes at 36 months (total number of words [TNW], number of different words [NDW], and mean length of utterance [MLU]) and (2) whether 24-month motor skills (fine and gross) account for additional variance in 36-month expressive language outcomes beyond that explained by 24-month language ability. Children with late language emergence (n = 21), drawn from a longitudinal cohort of children at elevated likelihood for autism spectrum disorder, were followed from 24 to 36 months to examine associations between early motor and language abilities and later expressive language outcomes. Expressive language at 36 months was assessed using natural language samples to derive TNW, NDW and MLU. Results indicated that 24-month fine motor skills were significantly associated with all 36-month expressive language outcomes, such that stronger early fine motor abilities corresponded to greater vocabulary size, lexical diversity, and morphological complexity. In contrast, gross motor skills were not significantly associated with later language outcomes. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that fine motor skills accounted for the largest amount of additional variance in expressive language outcomes beyond that explained by 24-month language ability and gross motor skills, particularly for lexical diversity, although models did not reach statistical significance, likely due to the small sample size. Overall, findings suggest that early fine motor development plays a meaningful role in supporting later expressive language growth in late talkers and may serve as an early indicator of language trajectories.
Description
2026
License
Attribution 4.0 International