How Do Young Children Develop Language?

Language is an important indicator of early childhood development. A Canadian-designed questionnaire is providing some critical insights.

Daniela O’Neill, Professor of Psychology at the University of Waterloo, studies language development and early thinking in children 1-5 years of age. She examines not only whether children know different words but how they put them together and how this is affected by their knowledge about themselves and their knowledge about others. Using what she has learned about early language development, she developed the Language Use Inventory (LUI), a questionnaire to assess language development in children 18 to 47 months of age.

O’Neill’s research is already having a real-world impact, and may be key to understanding the long-term impact of delay in language.