Co-occurring development of early childhood communication and motor skills: results from a population-based longitudinal study

摘要: Background Communicative and motor development is frequently found to be associated. In the current study we investigate what extent communication skills at 1½ years predict in same domains 3 of age. Methods This based on Norwegian Mother Child Cohort Study (MoBa) conducted by Institute Public Heath. Data stem from 62 944 children their mothers. Mothers completed questionnaires child's ages 3. Associations between were estimated a cross-lagged model with latent variables. Results Early correlated early (0.72). Stability was high (0.81) across time points for somewhat lower (0.40) skills. Early predicted later (0.38) whereas negatively (−0.14). Conclusion Our findings provide support hypothesis that these two difficulties are not symptoms separate disorders, but might rather different manifestations common underlying neurodevelopmental weakness. However, there also seem specific developmental pathways each domain. Besides theoretical interest, more knowledge about relationship shed light upon intervention strategies preventive efforts commonly used problems areas. Our suggest language likely simple directional complex multifaceted.