Table 1.

Proportions of late talkers among children with weak and typical oral language at age 8.

Measure	Weak abilitya	Typical ability
Oral language N	72	241
Late talking measures at age 2
Late: Vocabulary ≤10th percentileb	36%	18%
Typical: Vocabulary >10th percentile	64%	82%
Late: No word combiningc	23%	8%
Typical: Combining sometimes	36%	25%
Typical: Combining regularly	40%	67%

^aChildren with weak oral language at age 8 scored 1 SD or more below the mean on at least 2 of 4 oral language measures, or 2 SD or more below the mean on 1 oral language measure (Cohen et al., 1993). The age 8 oral language measures were the Picture Vocabulary and Memory for Sentences subtests of the Woodcock–Johnson Test of Cognitive Ability, Revised (Woodcock & Johnson, 1990), the Word Definitions subtest of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (Wechsler, 1999), and the narrative ability total score from the SECCYD.

^bLate talking identified by expressive vocabulary at or below the 10th percentile of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (MCDI) (Fenson et al., 1993). Percentiles adjusted for sex of child. Parents completed checklist indicating words used by the child.

^cLate talking identified by parent report (MCDI) of whether the child was not yet combining words, combining words sometimes, or combining regularly.