A 6-month-old who struggles to follow predictable sequences using shapes could face difficulty communicating as a toddler and in later life, according to a team of Italian scientists. Researchers from the University of Milano-Bicocca, among others, said their tests show a likely link between a child’s ability to understand shapes and sequences at a pre-verbal stage of development and his or her ability to communicate effectively 18 months later. Infants deemed “neurotypical” were able to learn the structure in the patterns, the researchers said, in a paper published by the medical journal PLOS…