Expressive language development of children exposed to cocaine prenatally:Literature review and report of a prospective cohort study

It was hypothesized that prenatal exposure to cocaine and other substances would be related to delayed expressive language development. Speech and lan guage data were available for 458 6-year olds (204 were exposed to cocaine) . No significant univariate or multivariate differences by cocaine exposure group were observed. Classification and regression tree modeling was then used to identify language variable composites predictive of cocaine exposur e status. Meaningful cut points for two language measures were identified a nd validated. Children with a type token ratio of less than 0.42 and with f ewer than 97 word types were classified into a low language group. Low lang uage children (n = 57) were more likely to be cocaine exposed (63.1%), with cocaine-exposed children 2.4 times more likely to be in the low language g roup compared with control children after adjustment for covariates. Prenat al cigarette, but not alcohol exposure, was also significantly related to e xpressive language delays. (C) 2000 by Elsevier Science Inc.