Inquiry: Are Late Talkers Early Walkers (& vice versa)?

[Jussi Niemi]

Dear Recipients of the Info-Childes List:

An old "wisdom" claims that children with a relatively early onset (and
subsequent fast pace?) of L1 acquisition are less skilled in their bodily
motor functions (e.g. in standing upright, walking) than children with a
more balanced language and motor path of development, not to speak of the
mirror images of these "early talkers", viz., the "early walkers", who are
claimed to be linguistically delayed. This type of "dissociation" would --
I think -- run counter to Piagetian views of language development in
ontogeny, but this type of thinking does prevail outside the academic world.

In order to say anything more definite about this to the person who
specifically asked me about this asymmetry, do any of the members of the
Info-Childes List know a systematic study of this topic? (if not, somebody
should check the files of the infant and maternity care clinics in
countries where pregnant women and their eventual offspring have for
decades been systematically monitored for these variables, e.g. in the
Nordic Countries).

I would be grateful for any hint of a study on this issue, and I will post
on our List -- as is the custom -- the synopsis of the results of my inquiry.


--Jussi Niemi

jussi.niemi at joensuu.fi


Jussi Niemi, PhD
Professor
Linguistics
University of Joensuu
FIN-80101 Joensuu, Finland
Phones:	+358-13-251 4306 (office)
	+358-13-251 3198 (Linguistics Lab), +358-50-3034337 (Linguistics mobile)
	+358-13-228723 (home), +358-40-5477382 (home mobile)
Fax:	+358-13-251 4211
jussi.niemi at joensuu.fi
http://cc.joensuu.fi/linguistics