# Administrative Supplement to The When to Worry about Language Study (W2W-L)

> **NIH NIH R01** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $197,084

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY – Original Submission
Primary language impairment (PLI) begins early in life and affects 6-8% of children. Although language
intervention is maximally effective the earlier it is delivered, normative variation in language acquisition across
toddlerhood (here 24-36 months) impedes accurate identification of PLI prior to late preschool age. The
proposed study introduces a novel, theoretically- grounded, neurodevelopmental framework designed
to generate a sensitive and specific model to identify PLI as early as possible. Our developmentally-
sensitive, translational approach introduces multiple innovations including: (1) characterizing the
developmental patterning of toddler emergent language beginning at 24 mos. using state-of-the-art methods,
within a large community sample; (2) incorporating EEG/ERP neural biomarkers of language into PLI risk
assessment; (3) using a novel paradigm to assess the protective effects of both behavioral and neural
synchronization within parent-child language transactions; and (4) consideration of irritability, a robust
developmental marker of early mental health risk, to enhance identification of those language delayed toddlers
at highest risk for persistence. For the proposed When to Worry about Language Study (W2W-L), we
capitalize on our funded study of 350 infants (50% irritable and 50% non-irritable) (R01MH107652, Wakschlag,
PI) and enrich it via recruitment of a sub-sample of 200 late talking toddlers. This will yield a large and diverse
sample of 550 24-month-olds. Our key predictors will be toddler emergent language patterns (24-36 months),
their neural biomarkers and synchrony within the transactional language environment. Our central outcome is
primary language impairment (PLI) status at preschool age (54 mos., when PLI can be reliably evaluated),
assessed via clinical gold standard expressive and receptive language abilities. SPECIFIC AIMS: AIM 1a.
Evaluate accuracy of PLI prediction based on multi-component measures of language including intensive
longitudinal assessments of toddler developmental precursors of key language functions at older ages, neural
biomarkers. We will assess neural and linguistic processing via quantitative EEG during parent-child interaction
and ERPs to speech sounds as well as during eye tracking tasks and 1b. Evaluate feasibility of creating an
algorithm for early identification of PLI that can be applied in clinical practice, using cross-validation and
machine learning. AIM 2: Test the hypothesis that parent-child dyadic synchrony buffers PLI risk For the first
time, we combine behavioral and novel social EEG measures of parent-child synchrony during natural
interaction and a custom-designed word learning task to directly test how observed (behavioral) and neural
(EEG) dyadic synchrony impact word learning. AIM 3: Test whether consideration of toddler irritability
enhances PLI prediction. In sum, PLI confers sustained negative effects on a variety of personal-soci...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10162280
- **Project number:** 3R01DC016273-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Elizabeth Spencer Norton
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $197,084
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2018-03-05 → 2023-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10162280

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10162280, Administrative Supplement to The When to Worry about Language Study (W2W-L) (3R01DC016273-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10162280. Licensed CC0.

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