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Language delays and disruptive behavior (e.g., aggression, irritability, and noncompliance) are common in early childhood and often co-occur. Both are frequent concerns brought up by parents at well-child visits.
To investigate links between language development and behavioral problems, researchers surveyed a sample of 1259 mothers of toddlers aged 18 to 36 months. The sample was representative of the U.S. population in terms of proportions of African-Americans, Hispanics, and people living in poverty. In addition to questions screening for expressive and receptive language delays, they used measures that captured the frequency of developmentally normative behaviors (e.g., child says “no”), as well as more extreme toddler behaviors (e.g., ta…