The effect of toxins in the environment on the development of language structure of pre-school children

This study is part of a long-term project, which studies a group of so-called affected pre-school children (AG, n = 52) who have been living in a polluted area since birth. For years this are has ben contaminated by neurotoxic substances. The point of reference for this study is the knowledge that long-term exposure of toxins on the organism and CNS of very young children cause a deterioration of cognitive and, thus language functions of children. The effort to understand the organization of language structure using the association response method was supplemented by the results of the rating scale focused on the evaluation of language expressions of children. The research found a prevalence of the so-called syntagmatic (developmentally lower) associations on the part of the affected children, compares to the control group (CG, n = 36), which tended towards associations of the paradigmatic type. We can speculate that children from the affected group have a slower cognitive in the arrangement of semantic memory. However, considering the conditions of the research project and the relatively small sample of subjects, this remains hypothesis. the rating scale used to evaluate the level of language production, has indicated a richer vocabulary and better pronunciation in children of the control group.