Neural auditory processing and prelinguistic communication build the foundation for later language development, but how these two are associated is not well known. The current study investigated how neural speech processing is associated with the level and development of prelinguistic skills in 102 infants. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) in 6-months-olds to assess the neural detection of a pseudoword (obligatory responses), as well as the neural discrimination of changes in the pseudoword (mismatch responses, MMRs). Prelinguistic skills were assessed at 6 and 12 months of age with a parental questionnaire (Infant-Toddler Checklist). The association between the ERPs and prelinguistic skills was examined using latent change score models, a method specifically constructed for longitudinal analyses and explicitly modeling intra-individual change. The results show that a large obligatory P1 at 6 months of age predicted strong improvement in prelinguistic skills between 6 and 12 months of age. The MMR to a frequency change was associated with the concurrent level of prelinguistic skills, but not with the improvement of the skills. Overall, our results highlight the strong association between ERPs and prelinguistic skills, possibly offering opportunities for early detection of atypical linguistic and communicative development.

神经听觉处理和语言前交流为以后的语言发展奠定了基础，但是这两者如何关联尚不清楚。目前的研究调查了神经语音处理与102名婴儿的语言能力水平和发展之间的关系。我们记录了6个月大的事件相关电位（ERP），以评估伪单词的神经检测（强制性响应）以及伪单词变化的神经辨别（不匹配响应，MMR）。在6个月和12个月大时使用父母问卷（婴儿幼儿检查表）评估了语言能力。使用潜在变更评分模型检查了ERP与语言能力之间的关联，一种专门用于纵向分析和显式建模个体内部变化的方法。结果表明，在6个月大时，较大的强制性P1可以预测6个月至12个月大时的语言能力大幅提高。频率变化的MMR与同时掌握的语言水平有关，但与技能的提高无关。总体而言，我们的结果强调了ERP和语言能力之间的紧密联系，这可能为早期发现非典型语言和交流发展提供机会。但不是随着技能的提高。总体而言，我们的结果强调了ERP和语言能力之间的紧密联系，这可能为早期发现非典型语言和交流发展提供机会。但技能却没有提高。总体而言，我们的结果强调了ERP和语言能力之间的紧密联系，这可能为早期发现非典型语言和交流发展提供机会。