Development of comprehensive and expressive language in children 12 to 36 months

Introduction. Language is a complex superior psychological process, which development has been related to demographic, cognitive and behavioral variables. Objective. Describe the development of comprehensive and expressive language in a group of 30 normal development children, aged between 12 and 36 months, and its relationship with demographic and family variables. Method. The study was conducted from a quantitative approach, with a non-experimental, cross sectional design and an exploratory, descriptive and correlational scope. We evaluated 12 girls and 18 children using the clinical history of the Evaluacion Neuropsicologica Infantil - ENI (Neuropsychological Assessment of Children), Escala Abreviada del Desarrollo (Abbreviated Development Scale) and the Preschool Language Scale Fourth Edition (PLS-4). Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Univariate analyses were performed on each of the variables. Bivariate analyses were conducted to estimate the association of demographic and family variables with language development (comprehensive and expressive as dependent variables). Results. Some of the children tested showed preverbal behaviors at an earlier age than is suggested by the literature. The age and sex of children were not directly related to language development. There was no relationship between family variables such as parents' education and occupation with language development of children. We found a statistically significant association between fathers' age and auditory comprehension (H de K-W = 11.345; p = 0.003). Conclusions. Most of the children in the sample presented an average comprehensive and expressive language development. Nevertheless, the appearance of babbling, saying more than three words and join two of them were exhibited earlier than what literature suggests.