{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T09:27:58Z","timestamp":1787045278739,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":25,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1787011200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Children"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background\/Objectives: Adolescence is a dynamic neurodevelopmental period during which structured language performance may reflect ongoing biological reorganization processes. This study examined whether inflammatory, nutritional, and hormonal biomarkers were modestly associated with structured language task performance and cognitive performance in healthy pubertal children. Methods: A total of 156 healthy pubertal children (78 female, 78 male; mean age of 11.84 \u00b1 2.98 years) meeting Tanner Stage \u2265 2 were included in this retrospective cross-sectional study. Language was assessed with the Test of Language Development-Primary: Fourth Edition (TOLD-P:4; Turkish adaptation) and cognition with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R). Pan-Immune-Inflammation Value (PIV), Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI), Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR), vitamin B12, 25-OH vitamin D, ferritin, and TSH were included as biomarkers. Two-block hierarchical OLS regression and Spearman correlations with Benjamini\u2013Hochberg FDR correction were used. Results: The biomarker block provided a statistically significant incremental contribution to the spoken language model (\u0394R2 = 0.066, p = 0.041; full model R2 = 0.287). The primary test statistic was \u0394R2. In exploratory coefficient-level analyses that were not corrected for multiple comparisons, the PIV (\u03b2 = +0.17, p = 0.033) and TSH (\u03b2 = \u22120.17, p = 0.031) coefficients reached nominal significance. After FDR correction, PIV was positively associated with WISC-R Verbal score (\u03c1 = +0.24, p_FDR = 0.019) and TSH negatively with TOLD-P:4 Speaking (\u03c1 = \u22120.22, p_FDR = 0.029). Biomarker contribution to WISC-R Full-Scale IQ was non-significant (\u0394R2 = 0.049, p = 0.223). Conclusions: At the block level, the biomarker set contributed significantly to the structured spoken-language model but not to the Full-Scale IQ model; however, one of the two FDR-significant bivariate associations involved a verbal cognitive measure (PIV with WISC-R Verbal). Any language-versus-cognition contrast should therefore be interpreted cautiously. The modest effect sizes suggest these relationships are best interpreted within a developmental and neuroimmune framework. Longitudinal and multimodal studies are needed to replicate these findings. Because the TOLD-P:4\/TOD\u0130L was applied beyond its validated age range (4; 0\u20138; 11) and its cross-age scoring could not be verified from the retrospective records, all language-based findings are exploratory and require confirmation with an age-validated instrument; the study\u2019s confirmatory finding is the FDR-significant association of PIV with age-appropriate WISC-R Verbal performance. Because the TOLD-P:4\/TOD\u0130L composite scores could not be verified as comparable across the sample\u2019s age range, all TOLD-P:4-based results reported here are exploratory and hypothesis-generating; the confirmatory analyses rely on the age-appropriate WISC-R outcomes.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/children13081101","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T08:08:41Z","timestamp":1787040521000},"page":"1101","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Exploratory Biological Correlates of Cognitive and Language Performance in Healthy Pubertal Children: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7138-2603","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Merve","family":"Sava\u015f","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Speech and Language Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Istanbul Atlas University, 34403 Istanbul, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6938-301X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Senanur","family":"Kahraman Be\u011fen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Speech and Language Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Istanbul Atlas University, 34403 Istanbul, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-6364-8615","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"\u00d6mer","family":"Okuyan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul Atlas University, 34403 Istanbul, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1347-8498","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hafize","family":"Uzun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Istanbul Atlas University, 34403 Istanbul, T\u00fcrkiye"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"274","DOI":"10.1055\/s-0036-1587705","article-title":"Language disorders in adolescents: Current needs and future directions","volume":"37","author":"Nippold","year":"2016","journal-title":"Semin. 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