Receptive and expressive language in pre school children from Embu das Artes, São Paulo State: mental health risk and protective factors

Developmental and language delays in early childhood may be associated with socioemotional and behavior disorders, and cause great impairment in the functionning of children and adolescents. Despite its relevance, in Brazil, there are no large scale studies. analyzing the association between socioemotional and behavioral disorders and the language ability of pre-schoolers. The main objectives of this research are: 1) is to verify the associations between receptive and expressive language abilities and the cognitive and socio-demographic variables, as well as the internalizing and/or externalizing symptoms and/or disorders, of pre-school children in the municipality of Embú das Artes, in the State of São Paulo; and 2) investigate the impact of a parental program on these abilities. This study will be conducted in partnership with two other studies: 1) "Trauma, mental health, and development in early infancy", already funded by CNPq, to identify the risk factors affecting the onset of internalizing and externalizing symptoms and/or syndromes in early infancy, as well as delays in the socio-emotional and language development, assessing on a significant sample of 1,250 children ages 4 and 5 years old attending public pre-school in Embú das Artes; and 2) "Mother Support Program (PAM)" to improve cognitive, social and communication skills of pre-school children, to improve the mother's quality of life and to decrease the level of domestic violence. This project was funded by CNPq and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and will offer the PAM for 400 additional pre-school children in Embu das Artes. For the current proposal, we propose to expand the the speech-language assessment by assessing the receptive and expressive language abilities and hearing screening of 1,650 children and wheter these abilities improve after a parenting program in a subsample (300 case and 300 controls). This study will add important and innovative contributions to the understanding of the factors associated with language in pre-school children. (AU)