PräSent

Language development begins well before the production of first words and becomes evident early on through the combination of vocalizations and gestures. This project investigates how milestones in vocal and gestural development at the end of the first year of life interact and how they predict later language development in both monolingual German-speaking and multilingual children.

In a longitudinal study of 150 children aged 9 to 24 months, early vocalizations, gestural abilities, and their combinations are assessed using a multimodal approach. In addition to providing fundamental insights into early communicative development, the project evaluates practice-oriented observational and questionnaire-based tools designed to enable early and time-efficient identification of children at risk for Developmental Language Disorder (DLD).

The findings are intended to form the basis for the development and evaluation of a multimodal screening tool that allows for valid, time-efficient, and cost-effective identification of children at risk for DLD during a routine pediatric preventive health examination in late infancy (approximately 10–12 months of age).

Project duration:	03/2026 – 03/2029
Principal Investigators:	Prof. Dr. Carina Lüke, Dr. Verena Frank & Dr. Daniela Eiband
Research Staff:	Caterina Verganti & Jana Seidel
Student assistants:	Annika Schmidt, Tabea Hitzler, Natalia Reicher, Sophia Gastl
Funding:	This project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) – Project number 573083140.

We are currently in the recruitment phase and are therefore looking for families with children until April 2027 who

• are younger than 9 months at the time of registration,
• are growing up growing up with one or more languages,
• and have not been diagnosed with any general developmental disorder.

Do you have a child of this age yourself or know any interested families? Please feel free to register directly with us or forward our online flyer.