Lexical development in Kuwaiti Arabic in typically developing children and late talkers

Introduction

This study explored vocabulary development and lexical composition in young typically developing (TD) Kuwaiti children and late talkers (LT) using the Kuwaiti Arabic Communicative Development Inventory-Words and Sentences (KACDI-WS) Abdalla et al., 2016). The sample included 161 children aged 20 to 37 months: 127 TD and 34 children who were late talkers (LT group). The late talkers were first identified based on a background questionnaire answered by the parents. All the caregivers completed a 698-item web-based KACDI expressive vocabulary inventory by selecting non-imitative words that their children produced.

Results

Lexical size and composition (nouns, predicates, and closed-class words) were analyzed. Across the TD age groups (20–26, 27–31, 32–37 months), a significant age effect for vocabulary size and composition was found in favor of the older groups. Nouns were more prevalent than predicates or closed-class words in within-group comparisons. The vocabulary size of the TD (M= 263.8) was significantly larger than that of the LT group (M= 69.2). The development of their lexical composition followed a similar pattern.

Conclusions

The results suggested that the KACDI parent report instrument has the potential for measuring vocabulary development in TD children and could serve as an initial screening tool to identify late talkers.