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

[keith nelson]

I would certainly invite Esther Thelen to comment, and she's copied
on this email.  Best,  Keith Nelson


>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


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