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Our aim was to assess the longitudinal trajectory of childhood receptive language skills and early influences on the course of language development.

Drawing on data collected for a nationally representative British birth cohort, the 1970 British Cohort Study, we examined the relationship between directly assessed early receptive language ability, family background, housing conditions, early literacy environment, and adult literacy skills. A sample of 11349 cohort members who completed the English Picture Vocabulary Test at 5 years of age were studied again at 34 years of age, when they completed a direct assessment of their basic literacy skills. We contrasted experiences of individuals with language problems at age 5 against the experiences of those with normal language skills at that age, assessing the role of socioeconomic family background and early literacy environment in …