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Ferjan Ramírez N, Weiss Y, Sheth KK, Kuhl PK. Parentese in infancy predicts 5-year language complexity and conversational turns. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2024; 51:359-384. [PMID: 36748287 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000923000077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Parental input is considered a key predictor of language achievement during the first years of life, yet relatively few studies have assessed its effects on longer-term outcomes. We assess the effects of parental quantity of speech, use of parentese (the acoustically exaggerated, clear, and higher-pitched speech), and turn-taking in infancy, on child language at 5 years. Using a longitudinal dataset of daylong LENA recordings collected with the same group of English-speaking infants (N=44) at 6, 10, 14, 18, 24 months and then again at 5 years, we demonstrate that parents' consistent (defined as stable and high) use of parentese in infancy was a potent predictor of lexical diversity, mean length of utterance, and frequency of conversational turn-taking between children and adults at Kindergarten entry. Together, these findings highlight the potential importance of a high-quality language learning environment in infancy for success at the start of formal schooling.
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Affiliation(s)
- Naja Ferjan Ramírez
- Department of Linguistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Yael Weiss
- Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Kaveri K Sheth
- Department of Linguistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Patricia K Kuhl
- Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
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2
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Ferjan Ramirez N, Hippe DS, Braverman A, Weiss Y, Kuhl PK. A comparison of automatic and manual measures of turn-taking in monolingual and bilingual contexts. Behav Res Methods 2024; 56:1936-1952. [PMID: 37145293 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-023-02127-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/12/2023] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
The Language ENvironment Analysis system (LENA) records children's language environment and provides an automatic estimate of adult-child conversational turn count (CTC) by automatically identifying adult and child speech in close temporal proximity. To assess the reliability of this measure, we examine correlation and agreement between LENA's CTC estimates and manual measurement of adult-child turn-taking in two corpora collected in the USA: a bilingual corpus of Spanish-English-speaking families with infants between 4 and 22 months (n = 37), and a corpus of monolingual families with English-speaking 5-year-olds (n = 56). In each corpus for each child, 100 30-second segments were extracted from daylong recordings in two ways, yielding a total of 9300 minutes of manually annotated audio. LENA's CTC estimate for the same segments was obtained through the LENA software. The two measures of CTC had low correlations for the segments from the monolingual 5-year-olds sampled in both ways, and somewhat higher correlations for the bilingual samples. LENA substantially overestimated CTC on average, relative to manual measurement, for three out of four analysis conditions, and limits of agreement were wide in all cases. Segment-level analyses demonstrated that accidental contiguity had the largest individual impact on LENA's average CTC error, affecting 12-17% of analyzed segments. Other factors significantly contributing to CTC error were speech from other children, presence of multiple adults, and presence of electronic media. These results indicate wide discrepancies between LENA's CTC estimates and manual CTCs, and call into question the comparability of LENA's CTC measure across participants, conditions, and developmental time points.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Daniel S Hippe
- Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Clinical Research Division, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Adeline Braverman
- Department of Linguistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Yael Weiss
- Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
| | - Patricia K Kuhl
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
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3
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Cychosz M, Edwards JR, Munson B, Romeo R, Kosie J, Newman RS. The everyday speech environments of preschoolers with and without cochlear implants. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2024:1-22. [PMID: 38362892 PMCID: PMC11327381 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000924000023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/17/2024]
Abstract
Children who receive cochlear implants develop spoken language on a protracted timescale. The home environment facilitates speech-language development, yet it is relatively unknown how the environment differs between children with cochlear implants and typical hearing. We matched eighteen preschoolers with implants (31-65 months) to two groups of children with typical hearing: by chronological age and hearing age. Each child completed a long-form, naturalistic audio recording of their home environment (appx. 16 hours/child; >730 hours of observation) to measure adult speech input, child vocal productivity, and caregiver-child interaction. Results showed that children with cochlear implants and typical hearing were exposed to and engaged in similar amounts of spoken language with caregivers. However, the home environment did not reflect developmental stages as closely for children with implants, or predict their speech outcomes as strongly. Home-based speech-language interventions should focus on the unique input-outcome relationships for this group of children with hearing loss.
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4
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Kondaurova MV, VanDam M, Zheng Q, Welikson B. Fathers' unmodulated prosody in child-directed speech. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2023; 154:3556-3567. [PMID: 38038615 PMCID: PMC10836962 DOI: 10.1121/10.0022571] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2023] [Accepted: 11/09/2023] [Indexed: 12/02/2023]
Abstract
Mothers and fathers modify prosodic characteristics of child-directed speech relative to adult-directed speech. Evidence suggests that mothers and fathers may differ in how they use child-directed speech as communicative partners. Thus, fathers create communicative challenges during father-child interaction that facilitate the child's adaptation to a wider potential range of interlocutors. In this paper, speech production differences are examined between mothers and fathers in child-directed speech to toddlers as compared to adult-directed speech. Using a longitudinal, large-scale design of audio recordings in naturalistic environments and automatic speech processing techniques, it was found that mothers, but not fathers, increased their fundamental frequency when addressing their toddlers. The results suggest that fathers do not modulate the prosody of their speech in the same way as mothers when communicating with their toddlers. Findings have implications for emotional and communicative practices of fathers compared to mothers and the differential role each plays in child development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria V Kondaurova
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville, 301 Life Sciences Building, Louisville, Kentucky 40292, USA
| | - Mark VanDam
- Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, Washington State University, Spokane, Washington 99202, USA
| | - Qi Zheng
- Department of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, School of Public Health and Information Science, University of Louisville, 485 East Gray Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, USA
| | - Bianca Welikson
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Louisville, 301 Life Sciences Building, Louisville, Kentucky 40292, USA
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5
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Feng T, Guo J, Dill SE, Zhang D, Liu Y, Ma Y, Pappas L, Rozelle S. Factors of parental investment in the home language environment in peri-urban China: A mixed methods study. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0294158. [PMID: 37956186 PMCID: PMC10642838 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294158] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2022] [Accepted: 10/26/2023] [Indexed: 11/15/2023] Open
Abstract
The home language environment is a critical point of investment in early language skills. However, few studies have quantitatively measured the home language environment of low-socioeconomic-status households in non-western settings. This mixed methods study describes the home language environment and early child language skills among households in a low-socioeconomic-status, peri-urban district of Chengdu, China, and identifies factors influencing parental investment in the home language environment. Audio recordings were collected from 81 peri-urban households with children ages 18-24 months and analysed using the Language Environment Analysis (LENATM) system. The Mandarin version of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory was administered to each child's primary caregiver. The quantitative results revealed large variation in home language environments and child language skills among the sample, with relatively low average scores when compared to other Chinese samples. Qualitative interviews with a subset of 31 caregivers revealed that many caregivers face constraints on their knowledge of interactive parenting, compounded, in some households, by time constraints due to work or household responsibilities. The findings indicate a need for increased sources of credible parenting information for peri-urban caregivers of young children to promote investment in the home language environment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tianli Feng
- School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Jingruo Guo
- School of Management and Economics, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
| | - Sarah-Eve Dill
- Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, United States of America
| | - Dongming Zhang
- Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, United States of America
| | - Yuchen Liu
- Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, United States of America
| | - Yue Ma
- Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, United States of America
| | - Lucy Pappas
- Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, United States of America
| | - Scott Rozelle
- Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, United States of America
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Monson BB, Ambrose SE, Gaede C, Rollo D. Language Exposure for Preterm Infants is Reduced Relative to Fetuses. J Pediatr 2023; 262:113344. [PMID: 36736889 PMCID: PMC10390654 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2022.12.042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2022] [Revised: 11/21/2022] [Accepted: 12/29/2022] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE To assess changes and deficits in language and auditory exposures consequent to preterm birth and neonatal intensive care unit stay compared with exposures in utero among typically developing fetuses. STUDY DESIGN We analyzed over 23 000 hours of auditory exposure data in a cohort study of 27 typically-developing fetuses and 24 preterm infants. Extrauterine exposures for fetuses were captured by having pregnant women wear 24-hour audio recording devices. For preterm infants, recording devices were placed in the infant's crib. Multilevel linear regressions were conducted to test for group differences and effects of infant sex, maternal education, and mother' occupation. A linear mixed-effects model was used to test for an effect of speaker gender. RESULTS Fetuses were exposed to an estimated 2.6 ± 1.8 hours/day of nearby, predominantly female language, nearly 5 times greater than 32 ± 12 minutes/day estimated for preterm infants (P < .001). Preterm infants had greater daily exposure to electronic sounds (5.1 ± 2.5 vs 1.3 ± 0.6 hours; P < .001) and noise (4.4 ± 2.1 vs 2.9 ± 2.8 hours; P < .05), with 4.7 ± 3.9 hours/day of silence. Language and extrauterine sound exposure for fetuses showed a marked day/night cyclical pattern, with low exposure during nighttime hours, but preterm infants' exposures showed significantly less change across the 24-hour cycle (P < .001). Maternal occupation requiring frequent communication predicted greater language exposure (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS Our findings provide the first comparison of preterm infant auditory exposures to typically-developing fetuses. Some preterm infants may incur deficits of over 150 hours of language exposure over the preterm period. Given known effects of prenatal/preterm language exposure on neurobehavioral outcomes, this magnitude of deficit is alarming.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian B. Monson
- Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences, Carle Illinois College of Medicine
- Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana, Illinois
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7
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Elbaum B, Perry LK, Messinger DS. Investigating Children's Interactions in Preschool Classrooms: An Overview of Research Using Automated Sensing Technologies. EARLY CHILDHOOD RESEARCH QUARTERLY 2023; 66:147-156. [PMID: 37954477 PMCID: PMC10634637 DOI: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2023.10.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2023]
Abstract
New technologies that combine digital sensors with automated processing algorithms are now being deployed to study preschool classrooms. This article provides an overview of these new sensing technologies, focusing on automated speaker classification, the analysis of children's and teachers' speech, and the detection and analysis of their movements over the course of the school day. Findings from recent studies utilizing these technologies are presented to illustrate the contribution of these sensing technologies to our understanding of classroom processes that predict children's language and social development. In particular, the potential to collect extended real-time data on the speech and movement of all children and teachers in a classroom provides a broader window on the variability of individual children's interactions with peers and teachers and their integration into classroom social networks. The article describes current challenges related to the use of sensing technologies in preschool settings, as well as advances that may overcome these challenges and allow for more in-depth investigations of children's early classroom experiences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Batya Elbaum
- Department of Teaching and Learning, University of Miami, 1507 Levante Ave., Coral Gables, FL 33146
| | - Lynn K. Perry
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, 5665 Ponce De Leon Blvd., Coral Gables, FL 33146
| | - Daniel S. Messinger
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, 5665 Ponce De Leon Blvd., Coral Gables, FL 33146
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Ruan Y, Orena AJ, Polka L. Comparing Different Measures of Bilingual Input Derived From Naturalistic Daylong Recordings. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2023; 66:1618-1630. [PMID: 37000939 DOI: 10.1044/2023_jslhr-22-00180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Measuring language input, especially for infants growing up in bilingual environments, is challenging. Although the ways to measure input have expanded rapidly in recent years, there are many unresolved issues. In this study, we compared different measurement units and sampling methods used to estimate bilingual input in naturalistic daylong recordings. METHOD We used the Language Environment Analysis system to obtain and process naturalistic daylong recordings from 21 French-English bilingual families with an infant at 10 and 18 months of age. We examined global and context-specific input estimates and their relation with infant vocal activeness (i.e., volubility) when input was indexed by different units (adult word counts, speech duration, 30-s segment counts) and using different sampling methods (every-other-segment, top-segment). RESULTS Input measures indexed by different units were strongly and positively correlated with each other and yielded similar results regarding their relation with infant volubility. As for sampling methods, sampling every other 30-s segment was representative of the entire corpus. However, sampling the top segments with the densest input was less representative and yielded different results regarding their relation with infant volubility. CONCLUSIONS How well the input that a child receives throughout a day is portrayed by a selected sample and correlates with the child's vocal activeness depends on the choice of input units and sampling methods. Different input units appear to generate consistent results, while caution should be taken when choosing sampling methods. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.22335688.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yufang Ruan
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
- Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Adriel John Orena
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
| | - Linda Polka
- School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
- Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, Montréal, Québec, Canada
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9
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Moffitt JM, Ahn YA, Custode S, Tao Y, Mathew E, Parlade M, Hale M, Durocher J, Alessandri M, Perry LK, Messinger DS. Objective measurement of vocalizations in the assessment of autism spectrum disorder symptoms in preschool age children. Autism Res 2022; 15:1665-1674. [PMID: 35466527 DOI: 10.1002/aur.2731] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2021] [Revised: 03/14/2022] [Accepted: 04/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Assessment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) relies on expert clinician observation and judgment, but objective measurement tools have the potential to provide additional information on ASD symptom severity. Diagnostic evaluations for ASD typically include the autism diagnostic observation schedule (ADOS-2), a semi-structured assessment composed of a series of social presses. The current study examined associations between concurrent objective features of child vocalizations during the ADOS-2 and examiner-rated autism symptom severity. The sample included 66 children (49 male; M = 40 months, SD = 10.58) evaluated in a university-based clinic, 61 of whom received an ASD diagnosis. Research reliable administration of the ADOS-2 provided social affect (SA) and restricted and repetitive behavior (RRB) calibrated severity scores (CSS). Audio was recorded from examiner-worn eyeglasses during the ADOS-2 and child and adult speech were differentiated with LENA SP Hub. PRAAT was used to ascertain acoustic features of the audio signal, specifically the mean fundamental vocal frequency (F0) of LENA-identified child speech-like vocalizations (those with phonemic content), child cry vocalizations, and adult speech. Sphinx-4 was employed to estimate child and adult phonological features indexed by the average consonant and vowel count per vocalization. More than a quarter of the variance in ADOS-2 RRB CSS was predicted by the combination of child phoneme count per vocalization and child vocalization F0. Findings indicate that both acoustic and phonological features of child vocalizations are associated with expert clinician ratings of autism symptom severity. LAY SUMMARY: Determination of the severity of autism spectrum disorder is based in part on expert (but subjective) clinician observations during the ADOS-2. Two characteristics of child vocalizations-a smaller number of speech-like sounds per vocalization and higher pitched vocalizations (including cries)-were associated with greater autism symptom severity. The results suggest that objectively ascertained characteristics of children's vocalizations capture variance in children's restricted and repetitive behaviors that are reflected in clinician severity indices.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Yeojin Amy Ahn
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA
| | - Stephanie Custode
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA
| | - Yudong Tao
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA
| | - Emilin Mathew
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA
| | - Meaghan Parlade
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA
| | - Melissa Hale
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA
| | - Jennifer Durocher
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA
| | - Michael Alessandri
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA
| | - Lynn K Perry
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA
| | - Daniel S Messinger
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA.,Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA.,Departments of Pediatrics and Music Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA
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10
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Houston DM. A Framework for Understanding the Relation Between Spoken Language Input and Outcomes for Children with Cochlear Implants. CHILD DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES 2022; 16:60-66. [PMID: 35979443 PMCID: PMC9377650 DOI: 10.1111/cdep.12443] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Spoken language outcomes after cochlear implantation are highly variable. Some variance can be attributed to individual characteristics. Research with typically hearing children suggests that the amount of language directed to children may also play a role. However, several moderating factors may complicate the association between language input and language outcomes in children with cochlear implants. In this article, I present a conceptual framework that posits that the association between total language input directed to children and language outcomes is moderated by factors that influence what is accessible, attended to, and coordinated with the child. The framework also posits that children with cochlear implants exhibit more variability on those moderating factors, which explains why the relation between language input and language outcomes may be more complex even if language input is more important for successful language outcomes in this population.
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Affiliation(s)
- Derek M. Houston
- Department of Otolaryngology‐Head and Neck Surgery The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Ohio USA
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11
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Mitsven SG, Perry LK, Tao Y, Elbaum BE, Johnson NF, Messinger DS. Objectively measured teacher and preschooler vocalizations: Phonemic diversity is associated with language abilities. Dev Sci 2022; 25:e13177. [PMID: 34592032 PMCID: PMC8847312 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13177] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2020] [Revised: 09/13/2021] [Accepted: 09/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Over half of US children are enrolled in preschools, where the quantity and quality of language input from teachers are likely to affect children's language development. Leveraging repeated objective measurements, we examined the rate per minute and phonemic diversity of child and teacher speech-related vocalizations in preschool classrooms and their association with children's end-of-year receptive and expressive language abilities measured with the Preschool Language Scales (PLS-5). Phonemic diversity was computed as the number of unique consonants and vowels in a speech-related vocalization. We observed three successive cohorts of 2.5-3.5-year-old children enrolled in an oral language classroom that included children with and without hearing loss (N = 29, 16 girls, 14 Hispanic). Vocalization data were collected using child-worn audio recorders over 34 observations spanning three successive school years, yielding 21.53 mean hours of audio recording per child. The rate of teacher vocalizations positively predicted the rate of children's speech-related vocalizations while the phonemic diversity of teacher vocalizations positively predicted the phonemic diversity of children's speech-related vocalizations. The phonemic diversity of children's speech-related vocalizations was a stronger predictor of end-of-year language abilities than the rate of children's speech-related vocalizations. Mediation analyses indicated that the phonemic diversity of teacher vocalizations was associated with children's receptive and expressive language abilities to the extent that it influenced the phonemic diversity of children's own speech-related vocalizations. The results suggest that qualitatively richer language input expands the phonemic diversity of children's speech, which in turn is associated with language abilities.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Lynn K. Perry
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral
Gables, Florida
| | - Yudong Tao
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida
| | - Batya E. Elbaum
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral
Gables, Florida,Department of Teaching and Learning, University of Miami,
Coral Gables, Florida
| | - Neil F. Johnson
- Department of Physics, The George Washington University,
Washington, District of Columbia
| | - Daniel S. Messinger
- Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral
Gables, Florida,Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida,Department of Pediatrics, Department of Music Engineering,
University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida
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12
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Hines M, Carpenito T, Martens A, Iizuka A, Aspinwall B, Zimmerman E. The home environment and its relation to vocalizations in the first year of life. PEDIATRIC MEDICINE (HONG KONG, CHINA) 2022; 5:3. [PMID: 35664538 PMCID: PMC9165690 DOI: 10.21037/pm-21-53] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Background Prior data has shown that the home environment impacts child development; however, there remains a paucity of research on how the home environment relates to child and adult words. Therefore, the aim of this prospective and quantitative study was to examine the relationship between the home environment and the quantity of vocalizations or words, and conversational turns produced by infants and parents at 3 and 12 months of age. Methods Seventy-two (56% male) full-term infants were assessed at 3 and 12 months of age. The home environment was assessed in person via interview and observation of the child's home using the Infant-Toddler Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (IT-HOME) Inventory subscales. Vocalizations were measured using the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) device, which measures the adult word count, child vocalization count and conversational turn count. These measures were then averaged for the most voluble, or vocal hour, in the recording period. Results At 3 months, IT-HOME Learning Materials scores were significantly associated with a decrease in adult words. We found a statistically significant difference in LENA outcomes between 3 and 12 months when stratified by sex. Specifically, male infants had significantly fewer vocalizations at 12 months when compared to 3 months, whereas females had more vocalizations. There was also a statistically significant difference in IT-HOME Learning Materials, Organization, Responsivity, and Total scores when comparing 3- and 12-month time points. Conclusions These findings reveal that the home environment changes significantly over the first year of life. At 3 months, Learning Materials in the home were related to adult words, while between 3 and 12 months, several aspects of the home significantly changed. Male children had reduced vocalizations between 3 and 12 months; whereas, female children had increased vocalizations during the same time points. Future research should focus on examining these outcomes with multiple measures, time points, and patient populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Morgan Hines
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Thomas Carpenito
- Department of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Alaina Martens
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Alicia Iizuka
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Billi Aspinwall
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Emily Zimmerman
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
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13
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Ferjan Ramírez N, Hippe DS, Correa L, Andert J, Baralt M. Habla conmigo, daddy! Fathers’ language input in North American bilingual Latinx families. INFANCY 2022; 27:301-323. [DOI: 10.1111/infa.12450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2021] [Revised: 12/14/2021] [Accepted: 12/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Daniel S. Hippe
- Clinical Research Division Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Seattle Washington USA
| | - Lili Correa
- Department of Linguistics University of Washington Seattle Washington USA
| | - Josephine Andert
- Department of Psychology University of Washington Seattle Washington USA
| | - Melissa Baralt
- Department of Modern Languages Center for Children and Families Florida International University Miami Florida USA
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14
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Variability in Quantity and Quality of Early Linguistic Experience in Children With Cochlear Implants: Evidence from Analysis of Natural Auditory Environments. Ear Hear 2022; 43:685-698. [PMID: 34611118 PMCID: PMC8881322 DOI: 10.1097/aud.0000000000001136] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Understanding how quantity and quality of language input vary across children with cochlear implants (CIs) is important for explaining sources of large individual differences in language outcomes of this at-risk pediatric population. Studies have mostly focused either on intervention-related, device-related, and/or patient-related factors, or relied on data from parental reports and laboratory-based speech corpus to unravel factors explaining individual differences in language outcomes among children with CIs. However, little is known about the extent to which children with CIs differ in quantity and quality of language input they experience in their natural linguistic environments. To address this knowledge gap, the present study analyzed the quantity and quality of language input to early-implanted children (age of implantation <23 mo) during the first year after implantation. DESIGN Day-long Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) recordings, derived from home environments of 14 early-implanted children, were analyzed to estimate numbers of words per day, type-token ratio (TTR), and mean length of utterance in morphemes (MLUm) in adults' speech. Properties of language input were analyzed across these three dimensions to examine how input in home environments varied across children with CIs in quantity, defined as number of words, and quality, defined as whether speech was child-directed or overheard. RESULTS Our per-day estimates demonstrated that children with CIs were highly variable in the number of total words (mean ± SD = 25,134 ± 9,267 words) and high-quality child-directed words (mean ± SD = 10,817 ± 7,187 words) they experienced in a day in their home environments during the first year after implantation. The results also showed that the patterns of variability across children in quantity and quality of language input changes depending on whether the speech was child-directed or overheard. Children also experienced highly different environments in terms of lexical diversity (as measured by TTR) and morphosyntactic complexity (as measured by MLUm) of language input. The results demonstrated that children with CIs varied substantially in the quantity and quality of language input experienced in their home environments. More importantly, individual children experienced highly variable amounts of high-quality, child-directed speech, which may drive variability in language outcomes across children with CIs. CONCLUSIONS Analyzing early language input in natural, linguistic environments of children with CIs showed that the quantity and quality of early linguistic input vary substantially across individual children with CIs. This substantial individual variability suggests that the quantity and quality of early linguistic input are potential sources of individual differences in outcomes of children with CIs and warrant further investigation to determine the effects of this variability on outcomes.
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE Vocal turn-taking is an important predictor of language development in children with and without hearing loss. Most studies have examined vocal turn-taking in mother-child dyads without considering the multitalker context in a child's life. The present study investigates the quantity of vocal turns between deaf and hard-of-hearing children and multiple members of their social environment. DESIGN Participants were 52 families with children who used hearing aids (HA, mean age 26.3 mo) or cochlear implants (CI, mean age 63.2 mo) and 27 families with normal-hearing (NH, mean age 26.6 mo) children. The Language ENvironment Analysis system estimated the number of conversational turns per hour (CTC/hr) between all family members (i.e., adult female, adult male, target child, and other child) during full-day recordings over a period of about 1 year. RESULTS The CTC/hr was lower between the target child and the adult female or adult male in the CI compared with the HA and NH groups. Initially, CTC/hr was higher between the target child and the adult female than between the adult male or the other child. As the child's age increased, turn-taking between the target child and the adult female increased in comparison to that between the target child and the adult male. Over time, turn-taking between the target child and the other child increased and exceeded turn-taking between the target child and the adult caregivers. The increase was observed earlier in families with siblings compared with those without. CONCLUSIONS The quantity of vocal turn-taking depends on the degree of child hearing loss and the relationship between the children and the members of their social environment. Longitudinally, the positive effect of an assistive device on the quantity of turns between the children and their family members was found. The effect was stronger in families with siblings.
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Cychosz M, Cristia A, Bergelson E, Casillas M, Baudet G, Warlaumont AS, Scaff C, Yankowitz L, Seidl A. Vocal development in a large-scale crosslinguistic corpus. Dev Sci 2021; 24:e13090. [PMID: 33497512 PMCID: PMC8310893 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13090] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/25/2020] [Revised: 12/09/2020] [Accepted: 01/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
This study evaluates whether early vocalizations develop in similar ways in children across diverse cultural contexts. We analyze data from daylong audio recordings of 49 children (1-36 months) from five different language/cultural backgrounds. Citizen scientists annotated these recordings to determine if child vocalizations contained canonical transitions or not (e.g., "ba" vs. "ee"). Results revealed that the proportion of clips reported to contain canonical transitions increased with age. Furthermore, this proportion exceeded 0.15 by around 7 months, replicating and extending previous findings on canonical vocalization development but using data from the natural environments of a culturally and linguistically diverse sample. This work explores how crowdsourcing can be used to annotate corpora, helping establish developmental milestones relevant to multiple languages and cultures. Lower inter-annotator reliability on the crowdsourcing platform, relative to more traditional in-lab expert annotators, means that a larger number of unique annotators and/or annotations are required, and that crowdsourcing may not be a suitable method for more fine-grained annotation decisions. Audio clips used for this project are compiled into a large-scale infant vocalization corpus that is available for other researchers to use in future work.
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Affiliation(s)
- Margaret Cychosz
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences & Center for Comparative and Evolutionary Biology of Hearing, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
| | - Alejandrina Cristia
- Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et de Psycholinguistique, Département d’études cognitives, ENS, EHESS, CNRS, PSL University, Paris, France
| | - Elika Bergelson
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Marisa Casillas
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Gladys Baudet
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Anne S. Warlaumont
- Department of Communication, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Camila Scaff
- Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et de Psycholinguistique, Département d’études cognitives, ENS, EHESS, CNRS, PSL University, Paris, France
- Human Ecology Group, Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Lisa Yankowitz
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Amanda Seidl
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
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Shapiro NT, Hippe DS, Ramírez NF. How Chatty Are Daddies? An Exploratory Study of Infants' Language Environments. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2021; 64:3242-3252. [PMID: 34324822 DOI: 10.1044/2021_jslhr-20-00727] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Purpose Fathers play a critical but underresearched role in their children's cognitive and linguistic development. Focusing on two-parent families with a mother and a father, the present longitudinal study explores the amount of paternal input infants hear during the first 2 years of life, how this input changes over time, and how it relates to child volubility. We devote special attention to parentese, a near-universal style of infant-directed speech, distinguished by its higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation. Method We examined the daylong recordings of the same 23 infants at ages 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months, given English-speaking families. The infants were recorded in the presence of their parents (mother-father dyads), who were predominantly White and ranged from mid to high socioeconomic status (SES). We analyzed the effects of parent gender and child age on adult word counts and parentese, as well as the effects of maternal and paternal word counts and parentese on child vocalizations. Results On average, the infants were exposed to 46.8% fewer words and 51.9% less parentese from fathers than from mothers, even though paternal parentese grew at a 2.8-times faster rate as the infants aged. An asymmetry emerged where maternal word counts and paternal parentese predicted child vocalizations, but paternal word counts and maternal parentese did not. Conclusions While infants may hear less input from their fathers than their mothers in predominantly White, mid-to-high SES, English-speaking households, paternal parentese still plays a unique role in their linguistic development. Future research on sources of variability in child language outcomes should thus control for parental differences since parents' language can differ substantially and differentially predict child language.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Daniel S Hippe
- Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle
| | - Naja Ferjan Ramírez
- Department of Linguistics, University of Washington, Seattle
- Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle
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Ellwood-Lowe ME, Foushee R, Srinivasan M. What causes the word gap? Financial concerns may systematically suppress child-directed speech. Dev Sci 2021; 25:e13151. [PMID: 34240510 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13151] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/29/2020] [Revised: 06/07/2021] [Accepted: 06/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Parents with fewer educational and economic resources (low socioeconomic-status, SES) tend to speak less to their children, with consequences for children's later life outcomes. Despite this well-established and highly popularized link, less research addresses why the SES "word gap" exists. Moreover, while research has assessed individual-level contributors to the word gap-like differences in parenting knowledge-we know little about how structural constraints that vary according to SES might affect caregivers' speech. In two pre-registered studies, we test whether experiencing financial scarcity can suppress caregivers' speech to their children. Study 1 suggests that higher-SES caregivers who are prompted to reflect on scarcity-particularly those who reflect on financial scarcity-speak less to their 3-year-olds in a subsequent play session, relative to a control group. Study 2 suggests that mid- to higher-SES caregivers engage in fewer back-and-forth exchanges with their children at the end of the month-when they are more likely to be experiencing financial hardship-than the rest of the month. These studies provide preliminary evidence that-above and beyond caregivers' individual characteristics-structural constraints may affect how much parents speak to their children.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Ruthe Foushee
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Mahesh Srinivasan
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
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