Influence of Nonverbal Intelligence and Migration Background on Language Abilities

Aim of the study: The aim of this study was to investigate the importance of nonverbal intelligence for child language skills. Methods: 414 children aged between 4 and 5 years were examined regarding their lexical-grammatical skills, their emotion recognition and empathic skill as a basic competence of their pragmatic as well as nonverbal intelligence. Correlations and regression analyses were performed to determine whether the nonverbal IQ contributes to variance explanation in each language area. Additionally, maternal educational level and the migration background were taken into account. Results: Nonverbal intelligence contributed to variance explanation, but to a low degree. A relatively high proportion of variance for the lexical-grammatical skills could be explained by the migration background; contact time with the German language played an essential role here. Conclusions: The models for lexical-grammatical skills prediction indicate the importance of migration background in relation to the contact time with the German language and nonverbal intelligence. The migration background does not seem to influence emotion recognition competence and empathic skills; nonverbal intelligence represents the only relevant factor.