The impact of early onset otitis media on babbling and early language development

Numerous studies have shown that otitis media (OM) during infancy has a negative impact on language development later in life. Few studies have examined the effect of OM on linguistic and prelinguistic behavior during infancy. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of OM on the development of canonical babble in children who experienced at least one episode during the period birth through 6 months of age, in comparison with children who did not experience OM during this period. The results show a consistently lower rate of canonical syllable production among children with early onset OM, when compared to children with later onset OM, during the period 6 through 18 months of age. In addition, a relationship between canonical babbling ability and expressive vocabulary size was observed at 18 months of age. (C) 1999 Acoustical Society of America. [S0001-4966(99)00601-3].