Do late-talking toddlers turn out to have reading difficulties a decade later?

Language and reading outcomes at age 13 were examined in a sample of 22 children who were late talkers as toddlers. The late talkers, all of whom had normal nonverbal ability and age-adequate receptive language at intake (24-to-31 months), were compared to a group of 14 typically developing children similar at intake on age, SES, and nonverbal ability. Late talkers had significantly poorer vocabulary, grammar, reading/spelling, and verbal memory skills at age 13, although as a group, they generally performed in the average range on most language and academic tasks. The findings suggest that slow early language development reflects a predisposition for slower acquisition and lower asymptotic performance in a wide range of language-related skills into adolescence.