The Early Language in Victoria Study (ELVS) has been following the speech and language development of approximately 1900 children born during 2002 in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia) since they were 8 months of age.
Background
ELVS is a longitudinal epidemiological study of the emerging communication, language and literacy skills of children and continues to follow this same group of children as they transition from adolescence to adulthood. ELVS is internationally unique in its coverage from the first year of life and in its depth of data from multi-source informant questionnaires, direct assessment in language-related dimensions (speech, vocabulary, fluency literacy, cognition), psycho-social and educational domains (social, emotional and behavioural development, quality of life, educational achievement, health care utilisation), and linkage to nationally acquired academic achievement data. ELVS was designed to better understand language development, trajectories from infancy through to middle childhood, the emergence of language difficulties, and factors that predict later outcomes.
Previous waves of this project were led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in collaboration with the University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, Griffith University, and Deakin University. Please visit MCRI for further information about the earlier waves during infancy to middle childhood.
The Current Phase
In 2020, we began Phase II of this project when the participants were completing their final years of formal schooling. This follow up aimed to find out more about how language continues to develop during the teenage years and into early adulthood. We re-recruited 790 parents and 569 young people and continued to collect multi-source data until 2024.
Phase II is being led by the University of Melbourne. In addition to the University of Melbourne, the current ELVS Investigator Team includes researchers from Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Newcastle University, and Griffith University.
Funding
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has funded ELVS since 2002 and continues it's funding in Phase II of this study.
Participating in the ELVS Follow up
You and your parent have been taking part in the ELVS study since you were 8 months old! ELVS has been so important in helping us to better understand how language development shapes children’s social and emotional wellbeing, school achievement, and friendships. We were thrilled to secure funding to continue the ELVS through till the end of 2024 so we could follow ELVS young people until they were 21 years old. We hope to learn more about how language, literacy and numeracy skills can shape young people’s lives as they move into adulthood and begin making decisions about their education, occupation, health, and wellbeing.
We have finished collecting surveys from participants for this follow up. We really appreciate the time you and your parent have contributed to complete surveys and for helping to keep ELVS going. We are currently analysing the results and writing papers. We will add them to the list of publications once they have been published.
The Early Language in Victoria Study (ELVS) is widely published. There are a number of studies nested within ELVS investigating different areas of communication development including: stuttering, autism and bilingual language development.
We are also collaborating internationally with researchers and PhD students at Newcastle University, University of Oxford and the University of Eastern Finland.
Data that is deidentified is available to others outside the study team, with appropriate safeguards and structures in line with the ethics approvals we have received and study governance processes. Researchers can visit LifeCourse to view a full list of domains and measures used at each wave of the study.
Researchers and PhD candidates are invited to contact us with any enquiries about accessing ELVS data.
Get in touch
Email: elvs-study@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 480 263 911