Journal article
Real-Time Spoken Word Recognition in Adults With and Without Developmental Language Disorder: The Role of Early Language Skills
Journal of speech, language, and hearing research, Vol.69(3), pp.1073-1090
03/2026
DOI: 10.1044/2025_JSLHR-25-00464
PMCID: PMC12997543
PMID: 41637240
Abstract
Purpose: This study aims to address the critical gap in research on real-time language processing in adults with developmental language disorder (DLD). We examine whether adults with DLD continue to exhibit differences in the dynamics of spoken word recognition observed in childhood or whether these differences resolve by adulthood. Additionally, drawing on data from the Iowa Longitudinal Study, we investigate how individual differences in adult word recognition are shaped by early childhood language abilities.
Method: Adults aged 34-36 years (n = 71; 28 with a childhood diagnosis of DLD) were recruited from a cohort of individuals who participated in the Iowa Longitudinal Study. The dynamics of spoken word recognition were assessed using eye tracking in the visual world paradigm in which participants heard a word and selected the correct visual referent from a display of four images: the target ("money"), phonological competitors (cohort [e.g., "mother"] or rhyme [e.g., "honey"]), and unrelated items ("whistle" and "blanket").
Results: We analyzed eye fixations to the target to assess the degree and speed of recognition and fixations to competitors to evaluate the timing and strength of lexical competition across groups. Adults with DLD activated targets and competitors similarly to adults with typical language, no longer exhibiting deficits found in childhood. However, across groups, both regression and principal component analyses revealed that individual differences in language scores in kindergarten are strongly linked to the dynamics of word recognition 30 years later.
Conclusions: Results suggest that, by adulthood, the dynamics underlying spoken word recognition for familiar words are largely similar in adults with and without DLD. However, individual differences in spoken word recognition in adulthood are strongly predicted by language ability in kindergarten. Findings emphasize the role of early language skills in laying the foundation for basic language processes in adulthood and underscore the importance of viewing language ability as a continuous spectrum rather than a categorical construct.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Real-Time Spoken Word Recognition in Adults With and Without Developmental Language Disorder: The Role of Early Language Skills
- Creators
- Mi Trinh - University of IowaJ Bruce Tomblin - University of Iowa, Iowa Neuroscience InstituteJacob J Oleson - University of Iowa, BiostatisticsKristi I Hendrickson - University of Iowa, Communication Sciences and Disorders
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Journal of speech, language, and hearing research, Vol.69(3), pp.1073-1090
- DOI
- 10.1044/2025_JSLHR-25-00464
- PMID
- 41637240
- PMCID
- PMC12997543
- NLM abbreviation
- J Speech Lang Hear Res
- ISSN
- 1092-4388
- eISSN
- 1092-4388
- Publisher
- American Speech-Language-Hearing Association; ROCKVILLE
- Grant note
- National Institutes of Health: R01DC020143
This work was supported by National Institutes of Health funding (R01DC020143) awarded to the senior author, Kristi Hendrickson. The authors are deeply grate-ful to the participants and their families, whose long-term commitment over the past 30 years made this research possible. They also thank Lindsey Nichol and Charlotte Hilker for their invaluable assistance in running partici-pants and managing data collection.
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 02/04/2026
- Date published
- 03/2026
- Academic Unit
- Communication Sciences and Disorders; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Biostatistics; Center for Social Science Innovation; Otolaryngology
- Record Identifier
- 9985142656102771
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