Late Talkers Not at Risk for Behavior Problems Later On

Late-Talking Children May Have Behavioral and Emotional Issues as Toddlers, but Not as Teens

July 4, 2011 -- Late talkers or children with limited number of words by age 2 may have some behavioral and emotional issues as toddlers, but these issues will not follow them through their childhood and teen years. The new findings appear in the August issue of Pediatrics.

Researchers followed more than 2,800 children from birth through age 17. The 142 children who were late talkers did show mild levels of behavioral and emotional problems at age 2, but they were not at greater risk for such issues as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct problems, anxiety, or depression as they grew up.

The findings "support a wait-and-see approach to behavioral and speech and language intervention among late talkers with otherwise normal development," conclude study authors led by Andrew J.O. Whitehouse, PhD, of the University of Western Australia in Subiaco, Western Australia.

As many as 18% of children are “late talkers,” but most will catch up by the time they enter school. The new findings may not apply to children with persistent language impairment and/or other developmental delays.

The late talkers in this study did not have any other developmental delays, intellectual disability, or hearing problems. They only showed expressive language delays.

The key is whether or not the late talker catches up, Melissa Wexler Gurfein, a speech-language pathologist in New York City, says in an email. "There is no way of knowing whether a child who has been identified as a late talker at age 2 will eventually catch up to the language skills of his same-aged peers," she says.

"It's no surprise that late talkers at age 2 may seem to have more behavioral difficulties," she says. "The frustration of not being able to communicate successfully could be a possible cause of disruptive behavior."

But as a child matures and develops more age-appropriate language skills, his frustration with communication and disruptive behaviors may resolve. "For the child who continues to demonstrate language delays as he matures, this may not hold true," she says.

"The best thing to do for a child who is identified as a late talker is to provide early intervention to help him become as successful of a communicator as he can be since there is no way to identify if he will develop the appropriate language skills to do this on his own," she says.

Children under age 3 with developmental delays, including speech delays, qualify for free evaluation through early intervention. If they are found to have any significant delays, they are eligible for free catch-up services.

Rahil Briggs, PsyD, an infant-toddler psychologist/behavioral expert at the Children' Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, N.Y., says that the children in this study fall into a very specific category, and the findings can't be generalized to late talkers with other developmental delays.

Late Talkers Not at Risk for Behavior Problems Later On

Late-Talking Children May Have Behavioral and Emotional Issues as Toddlers, but Not as Teens

July 4, 2011 -- Late talkers or children with limited number of words by age 2 may have some behavioral and emotional issues as toddlers, but these issues will not follow them through their childhood and teen years. The new findings appear in the August issue of Pediatrics.

Researchers followed more than 2,800 children from birth through age 17. The 142 children who were late talkers did show mild levels of behavioral and emotional problems at age 2, but they were not at greater risk for such issues as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, conduct problems, anxiety, or depression as they grew up.

The findings "support a wait-and-see approach to behavioral and speech and language intervention among late talkers with otherwise normal development," conclude study authors led by Andrew J.O. Whitehouse, PhD, of the University of Western Australia in Subiaco, Western Australia.

As many as 18% of children are “late talkers,” but most will catch up by the time they enter school. The new findings may not apply to children with persistent language impairment and/or other developmental delays.

The late talkers in this study did not have any other developmental delays, intellectual disability, or hearing problems. They only showed expressive language delays.

The key is whether or not the late talker catches up, Melissa Wexler Gurfein, a speech-language pathologist in New York City, says in an email. "There is no way of knowing whether a child who has been identified as a late talker at age 2 will eventually catch up to the language skills of his same-aged peers," she says.

"It's no surprise that late talkers at age 2 may seem to have more behavioral difficulties," she says. "The frustration of not being able to communicate successfully could be a possible cause of disruptive behavior."

But as a child matures and develops more age-appropriate language skills, his frustration with communication and disruptive behaviors may resolve. "For the child who continues to demonstrate language delays as he matures, this may not hold true," she says.

"The best thing to do for a child who is identified as a late talker is to provide early intervention to help him become as successful of a communicator as he can be since there is no way to identify if he will develop the appropriate language skills to do this on his own," she says.

Children under age 3 with developmental delays, including speech delays, qualify for free evaluation through early intervention. If they are found to have any significant delays, they are eligible for free catch-up services.

Rahil Briggs, PsyD, an infant-toddler psychologist/behavioral expert at the Children' Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, N.Y., says that the children in this study fall into a very specific category, and the findings can't be generalized to late talkers with other developmental delays.

Depression and Risky Behavior

Why self-destructive behavior may accompany depression and what to do about it.

Depression poses many dangers, burdening people with hopelessness and raising their risk of suicide. But in attempts to quell the pain, some turn to alcohol, drugs, and other harmful behaviors that endanger them even further, psychologists say.

“There is a strong relationship between depression and high-risk behaviors,” says Pamela Cantor, PhD, a psychologist and lecturer at Harvard Medical School.

“Excessive drinking, drug abuse, unsafe sex, and cutting are all self-injurious behaviors that individuals may use to provide temporary relief from intense emotional pain,” she says -- a pain that some experts have labeled “psychache.”

It’s a fairly common scenario in therapists’ offices across the country. Cara Gardenswartz, a clinical psychologist in private practice in Beverly Hills, Calif., and a lecturer at UCLA, estimates that roughly 30% of her depressed clients engage in some type of “self-injurious or harmful behavior,” she says.

Often, there’s more than one problem. “Someone with one self-injurious behavior is more likely to have two or three,” Gardenswartz says.

At Fordham University in New York, assistant psychology professor and researcher Peggy Andover, PhD, studies young people who engage in “nonsuicidal self-injury.” In other words, when they’re distressed, they cut, burn, carve, or scratch their skin in an attempt to make themselves feel better.

There’s not much data on how often depressed people will engage in nonsuicidal self-injury, Andover says. But researchers have studied those with self-injury for symptoms of depression. “What we know is that people who engage in nonsuicidal self-injury generally have higher levels of depressive [symptoms],” she says. Furthermore, newer research suggests that depression comes first and the self-injury follows, not vice versa, she says.

Depression can unearth unbearable feelings that many people try to escape. For example, a depressed man who grew up in a violent and neglectful home may turn to drinking to bury the feelings of rage and poor self-esteem.

“For all of these high-risk behaviors, there’s a part of them that’s trying to numb themselves ... from really difficult and significant feelings of loss, anger, shame, or anxiety,” Gardenswartz says.

But there are secondary reasons, too: Self-destructive behaviors can communicate one’s misery, experts say.

“If they’re depressed and feel that nobody cares -- ‘Nobody loves me and I’m not important to anybody’ -- those behaviors can be a way of saying to themselves and others that ‘I deserve nothing. I don’t deserve to be healthy or happy or whole,’” says Mary Carole Curran, PhD, a psychologist in St. Louis. “Or sometimes, they say, ‘Pay attention to me.’ It’s a cry for help.”

Some turn to harmful coping methods because their families modeled such behavior, Gardenswartz says. For example, if one’s parents dealt with problems through drinking, an adult child might do the same.