The relationship between the neuropsychomotor developmental skills, the auditory and expressive vocabulary and language development in children aged from 24 to 36 months

ABSTRACT Purpose: to explore the relationship between neuropsychomotor skills, auditory and expressive vocabulary, and language development. Methods: 30 volunteer parents and their children, children of both sexes, without auditory, neurological, psychiatric conditions, or syndromes. As materials, the Neuropsychomotor Development Checklist (NPDC, unpublished), 20 questions about the first milestones of child development; the Language Development Assessment (ADL), to assess overall developmental milestones; the Auditory and Expressive Vocabulary Test were used. Descriptive percentages and statistical analysis, the Chi- Square Test (as statistical significance p<0.05), were used to associate the results. Results: of 30 participants, in the Vocabulary Tests, both auditory and expressive, 17 participants (56.7%) underperformed and it was less than expected for the vocabulary development, and there was no statistically relevant association to ADL. Children who did not meet the two of the development milestones of NPDC - pointing to body parts by 12 months and putting two or three words together - were associated to statistically relevant underperformance in the ADL (p=0.018, p=0.015, respectively). Conclusion: these findings highlight the critical role of global development, environmental stimulation, and social interaction in early language acquisition, suggesting the need for comprehensive assessment and early intervention.