Tracking Acquisition of Language in Kids (TALK) study protocol: A longitudinal investigation of infants at high vs. low risk for atypical speech and language development
Goble et al. (2026) lay out a nine-year roadmap to find the earliest brain and behavior signs that predict language disorders.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Goble et al. (2026) wrote the recipe for a long, long study. They will follow babies from six months old to the day they enter school.
Half the babies have a mom, dad, or big sib who stutters or has autism. The other half do not. The team will peek at brain waves while the infants hear speech, count their first words, and watch them play.
What they found
Nothing yet. This paper only gives the plan. Real data will arrive in a few years.
How this fits with other research
Laguna et al. (2025) already show that a computer can spot autism just by listening to toddler cries. Goble’s team could add that cry test to their baby visits and catch risk even earlier.
La Valle et al. (2024) proved that tiny language gains show up when you record kids every week. Goble will use the same kind of frequent check-ins, starting in infancy instead of preschool.
Cornish et al. (2012) warn that every delay follows its own path. Goble’s wide net—brain, speech, and play—should help separate language-only issues from broader developmental curves.
Why it matters
If the TALK study works, you will have a cheap, early red-flag checklist before age two. You could start speech goals months sooner, shape babble into words, and ease parent worry with real data instead of hunches. Watch for their future papers—those charts may become your new intake toolkit.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add a quick parent question—‘Any family history of speech delay or autism?’—to your intake form; flag yes answers for closer babble and turn-taking checks.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The sensitive period for phonetic learning, normally considered to be between 6–12 months of age, has been demonstrated as one of the earliest milestones for language development. Infant speech processing towards the end of the sensitive period has been shown to predict individual language development trajectories up to school entry and most recently, risk of speech and language disorders, suggesting its potential clinical relevance. Yet, this literature is largely limited to typically developing infants with regard to their family histories of speech and language delays or disorders. The current study begins to fill the gap by investigating associations between neural markers of the sensitive period, family history risk factors, and language outcomes by gathering extensive information from a large group of infants. Specifically, family information includes an extensive parental survey of family background and clinical history, a comprehensive assessment of language skills for one older sibling by a research speech-language pathologist (SLP), and a daylong audio recording in infants’ homes for assessing their language environment. The study design focuses on comparing neural predictors of language development in infants with or without first-degree family history of speech and language delays and disorders (i.e., High vs. Low-Risk infants). Infants’ neural speech processing is measured three times using Magnetoencephalography at 6 months, 12 months, and 14 months of age. Infants’ language development is tracked until school entry by both parental surveys and the same comprehensive assessment protocol with a research SLP. This protocol documents the study design and methodological details for data collection and preprocessing. This study will allow our research team to start tackling important questions regarding early predictors of speech and language delays and disorders (e.g., late-talking, Developmental Language Disorder) and contribute significant value to the broader field.
PLOS One, 2026 · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0335596