Real-Time Spoken Word Recognition in Adults With and Without Developmental Language Disorder: The Role of Early Language Skills

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 kin-dergarten are strongly linked to the dynamics of word recognition 30 years later. Conclusions: Results suggest that, by adulthood, the dynamics underlying spo-ken 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 lan-guage processes in adulthood and underscore the importance of viewing lan-guage ability as a continuous spectrum rather than a categorical construct. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.31158757