RESUMEN

Our goal in this chapter is to describe young children's experiences with language by examining three domains-people, places, and things-that define and influence their language input. We highlight how features of each of these three domains could provide useful learning opportunities, as well as how differences in infants' and toddlers' experiences may affect their long-term language skills. However, we ultimately suggest that a full understanding of early environments must move beyond a focus on individual experiences and include the broader systems that shape young children's lives, including both tangible aspects of the environment, such as physical resources or locations, and more hidden factors, such as cultural considerations, community health, or economic constraints.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

This study investigated the vocal and early speech development of Korean-acquiring children with hearing loss (HL) who underwent early auditory amplification compared to their typical hearing (TH) counterparts. The research focused on phonological characteristics of child vocalisation based on samples collected from naturalistic home environments. One-day home recordings using a Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) recorder were obtained from 6 children with HL and 12 children with TH who ranged from 17 to 23 months of age in Korean monolingual environments. Child volubility, canonical babbling ratio (CBR), consonant distributions, and utterance structures of vocalisations were evaluated through qualitative and quantitative analyses of vocalisation samples collected from LENA recordings. The findings revealed that children with HL displayed comparable vocalisation levels to children with TH, with no significant differences in volubility and CBR. In consonant and utterance shape inventories, noticeable quantitative and qualitative differences were observed between children with HL and those with TH. The study also suggested both universal and language-specific production patterns, revealing the early effects of ambient language on consonant distributions and utterance structures within their vocalisation repertoire. This study emphasised the role of auditory input and the importance of early auditory amplification to support speech development in children with HL.

RESUMEN

Background/Objectives: This study aimed to investigate whether day-long recordings with Language Environment Analysis (LENA) can be utilized in a hospital-based Auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT) program in Denmark for children with hearing loss and to conduct a pilot validation in the Danish language. Methods and materials: A license for the LENA system (LENA SP) was purchased, and trials were offered to three families enrolled in the AVT program. Each family made two day-long recordings with 3-4 months in between and received feedback during the therapy sessions. From 18 × 10-min clips randomly pulled out of the recordings, a comparison of adult word counts (AWC) between the LENA algorithm counts and the counts made by two human transcribers was made and used for the pilot validation. Results: LENA proved to be valuable as a guiding tool for Danish parents. Pilot validation showed good correlations and an acceptable limit of agreement (LoA). Conclusions: LENA holds the potential for Danish validation and use in AVT/clinical practice. When used in clinical practice, parents must be informed of the biases and limitations, and possible ethical issues must be considered. Because of the GDPR rules, there is a need to discuss the possibility of implementing this tool clinically in Denmark and the EU.

RESUMEN

Input is considered crucial in bilingual children's language development. This is especially true for bilingual children's mother tongue language learning given its common reduction in input opportunities due to the dominance of one language within society, as seen in countries and regions from Wales to Singapore. Previous studies tend to focus on the quantity and quality of conventional active communication and resources (e.g., speaking and reading with parents) on bilingual children's language development, and substantially, fewer studies have explored this topic from the perspective of digital media. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated the critical role of digital media in various aspects of life, including bilingual children's home language environment. Thus, to holistically understand bilingual children's daily language input patterns, it is imperative to explore both their conventional and digital media input resources. The current study focuses on English-Mandarin bilingual children in Singapore and would like to explore (1) whether their conventional and digital media language environments have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) whether the societal status of a language and familial socioeconomic status (SES) would affect bilingual children's conventional and digital media input. Survey data from 162 parents of English-Mandarin bilingual preschoolers (3 to 6 years old) were used to explore the two research questions. Two online parental questionnaires were employed for data collection. One-way repeated-measures MANOVA and path models were used to address the questions. The results indicated that input patterns from nuclear family members had not been affected by COVID-19; however, the amount and frequency of conventional and digital media materials and activities increased significantly since COVID-19. Higher-SES families possessed more conventional materials and conducted conventional activities more often, while lower-SES families possessed more digital media materials. Both conventional and digital media materials and activities were richer in English than in Mandarin. Higher-SES families perceived digital media usage for learning to be of less importance than lower-SES families. The implications for early bilingual learning following COVID-19 are discussed.

RESUMEN

This study is a validation of the LENA system for the Italian language. In Study 1, to test LENA's accuracy, seventy-two 10-minute samples extracted from daylong LENA recordings were manually transcribed for 12 children longitudinally observed at 1;0 and 2;0. We found strong correlations between LENA and human estimates in the number of Adult Word Count (AWC) and Child Vocalisations Count (CVC) and a weak correlation between LENA and human estimates in Conversational Turns Count (CTC). In Study 2, to test the concurrent validity, direct and indirect language measures were considered on a sample of 54 recordings (19 children). Correlational analyses showed that LENA's CVC and CTC were significantly related to the children's vocal production, a parent report measure of prelexical vocalizations and the vocal reactivity scores. These results confirm that the automatic analyses performed by the LENA device are reliable and powerful for studying language development in Italian-speaking infants.

RESUMEN

Decades of research have established that the home language environment, especially quality of caregiver speech, supports language acquisition during infancy. However, the neural mechanisms behind this phenomenon remain under studied. In the current study, we examined associations between the home language environment and structural coherence of white matter tracts in 52 typically developing infants from English speaking homes in a western society. Infants participated in at least one MRI brain scan when they were 3, 6, 12, and/or 24 months old. Home language recordings were collected when infants were 9 and/or 15 months old. General linear regression models indicated that infants who heard the most adult words and participated in the most conversational turns at 9 months of age also had the lowest fractional anisotropy in the left posterior parieto-temporal arcuate fasciculus at 24 months. Similarly, infants who vocalized the most at 9 months also had the lowest fractional anisotropy in the same tract at 6 months of age. This is one of the first studies to report significant associations between caregiver speech collected in the home and white matter structural coherence in the infant brain. The results are in line with prior work showing that protracted white matter development during infancy confers a cognitive advantage.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

While socioeconomic disparities in the home language environment have been well established, the mechanisms explaining these disparities are poorly understood. One plausible mechanism is heightened stress. The current study investigated whether maternal perceived stress was 1) associated with measures of the home language environment, and 2) mediated the relation between socioeconomic disparities and the home language environment. Data from three independent studies were analyzed, which together comprised 322 mother-child dyads. Two studies included mothers and their six- to twelve-month-old infants (N = 227). The third included mothers and their five- to nine-year-old children (N = 95). Mothers reported their educational attainment, income, and stress. Language Environment Analysis (LENA) measured the home language environment. As has been previously reported, socioeconomic disparities were observed in adult words and conversational turns. Stress did not mediate these associations, nor was it associated with adult words or conversational turns. Alternate mechanisms for future exploration are discussed.

RESUMEN

Parental input is considered a key predictor of language achievement during the first years of life, yet relatively few studies have assessed the effects of parental language input and parent-infant interactions on early brain development. We examined the relationship between measures of parent and child language, obtained from naturalistic home recordings at child ages 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months, and estimates of white matter myelination, derived from quantitative MRI at age 2 years (mean = 26.30 months, SD = 1.62, N = 22). Analysis of the white matter focused on dorsal pathways associated with expressive language development and long-term language ability, namely, the left arcuate fasciculus (AF) and superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF). Frequency of parent-infant conversational turns (CT) uniquely predicted myelin density estimates in both the AF and SLF. Moreover, the effect of CT remained significant while controlling for total adult speech and child speech-related utterances, suggesting a specific role for interactive language experience, rather than simply speech exposure or production. An exploratory analysis of 18 additional tracts, including the right AF and SLF, indicated a high degree of anatomic specificity. Longitudinal analyses of parent and child language variables indicated an effect of CT as early as 6 months of age, as well as an ongoing effect over infancy. Together, these results link parent-infant conversational turns to white matter myelination at age 2 years, and suggest that early, interactive experiences with language uniquely contribute to the development of white matter associated with long-term language ability.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Children's earliest experiences with language are thought to have profound and lasting developmental effects. Recent studies suggest that intervention can increase the quality of parental language input and improve children's learning outcomes. However, important questions remain about the optimal timing of intervention, and the relationship between specific aspects of language experience and brain development. We report that parent-infant turn-taking during home language interactions correlates with myelination of language related white matter pathways through age 2 years. Effects were independent of total speech exposure and infant vocalizations and evident starting at 6 months of age, suggesting that structured language interactions throughout infancy may uniquely support the ongoing development of brain systems critical to long-term language ability.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: A rich language environment is an important element of a nurturing home environment. Despite their proven importance, vocabulary and conversation have been shown to vary widely across households-even within the same socio-economic class. One significant gap in the existing literature is its nearly exclusive geographic focus on Western and developed settings, with little attention given to poorer communities in lower/middle income countries. The purpose of this study was to empirically illustrate the characteristics of the home language environment in the low SES, non-Western cultural setting of rural China. METHODS: Using Language Environment Analysis (LENA) automated language-analysis system, this study measured the home language environment of 38 children aged 20-27 months in Northwest rural China. Our primary measures of the home language environment were Adult Word Count (AWC), Conversational Turn Count (CTC) and Child Vocalization Count (CVC). Multivariate linear regression models were used to examine the association between home language environment and family/child characteristics, and language skills (Measured by MacArthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory score). RESULTS: In this paper, by comparison, we found that the home language environment of our rural sample fell far behind that of urban households. We also identify significant, positive correlations between language skills and both AWC and CTC. Our analysis finds no significant correlations between home language environment and family/child characteristics. CONCLUSION: In this paper, we present the first ever findings using the LENA system to measure the home language environment of young children from poor rural communities in China. We found that the home language environment of lower-SES household was significantly worse than high-SES households, and demonstrated the importance of the home language environment to language skills, pointing to a need for more high-quality studies of the home language environment in rural China to better understand possible mechanisms behind low levels of parent-child language engagement and ways to improve the home language environment.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Family-level factors that characterize the home environment are critical inputs to early language and cognitive development, and potential mechanisms for improving developmental outcomes in vulnerable populations. Many studies conducted in high-income and Western settings highlight stimulating parenting, the home language environment, and parental self-efficacy as possible mechanisms of early development, though less is known about how these family-level factors impact child development in low- or middle-income settings. Even less is known about these family-level factors and early childhood development in rural China, where rates of cognitive and language delay in children aged 0-3 years are as high as 45% and 46%, respectively. Using data collected from 77 rural households with children aged 18-24 months in Southwestern China, this study examines the associations between stimulating parenting, the home language environment, and parental self-efficacy, and early cognitive and language development. The results indicate that stimulating parenting was significantly associated with cognitive, language, and overall development; the home language environment was only significantly associated with language development; and parental self-efficacy was not significantly associated with any developmental outcomes. The implications of such findings reveal mechanisms for supporting healthy child development in rural China.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

AIM: This longitudinal study investigated associations between language environment and parent-infant close contact in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and preterm children's lexical abilities. METHODS: NICU language environment of 43 very preterm infants (born<32 gestational weeks) was measured with the Language Environment Analysis System (LENA; variables: number of adult words, conversational turns, and child vocalisations). Parent-infant close contact (holding and skin-to-skin contact) in the NICU was reported using parental closeness diaries. At 15 and 18 months' corrected age, lexical development was measured with screening methods, and eye tracking-based lexical processing was assessed at 18 months. N varied between 29 and 38 in different outcome measures. RESULTS: LENA measured conversational turns and child vocalisations, and parent-infant close contact associated positively with lexical development (r = 0.35-0.57). High numbers of NICU adult words associated negatively with lexical processing (r = -0.38- -0.40). In regression models, conversational turns and parent-infant close contact explained 34%-35% of receptive development. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that adult-infant turn taking and parent-infant close contact in the NICU are positively associated with lexical development. High numbers of overheard words in the NICU may not favour later lexical processing. Further research is warranted on the significance of NICU language environment on later lexical abilities.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

This study investigates differences in the language environments experienced by multilingual and monolingual infants in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. The Language Environment Analysis (LENA) technology was used to collect day-long audio-recordings from 181 one-year-old infants (age range from 12 to 21 months). We examined whether infants' multilingual status predicts the amount of educators' language input (adult word count, AWC), child vocalizations (CVC) and conversational turns (CTC), as well as interaction effects on AWC, CVC and CTC of infants' multilingual status and other infant, home and ECEC characteristics. Multilevel mixed effects models revealed no main effect of infants' multilingual status on the language environment outcome variables. Instead, infant gender significantly predicted adult word count, with female infants hearing more words from educators than male infants. There was a significant interaction effect between the infants' multilingual status and both their age and length of time in an ECEC setting on child vocalizations. While monolingual infants produced more vocalizations as their age increased, multilingual infants did not show this increase in vocalizations with age. Further, the difference between monolingual and multilingual children's vocalizations decreased as the length of time in ECEC increased. There were no significant predictors of conversational turns. Findings from this study suggest that early childhood educators do not adjust their talk according to the multilingual status of the infants. However, multilingual infants do not increase their vocalizations as their age increases to the same extent as do their monolingual peers. The interaction effect between multilingualism and the length of ECEC attendance also implies that ECEC environments may be particularly beneficial for supporting multilingual infants' vocalizations. This study highlights the need to provide pedagogical support to educators to help them to encourage multilingual infants' vocalizations in ECEC settings.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Using premier Language Environment Analysis technology to measure and analyze the home language environment, this observational study aims to describe the home language environment and child language ability, drawing on empirical data from 77 households with children aged 18-24 months from rural China. The results show large variation in measures of the home language environment and early language ability, similar to other rural Chinese samples. Results also demonstrate significant correlations between child age and the home language environment, maternal employment and the home language environment, father's educational attainment and the home language environment, adult-child conversations and early language ability, and child vocalizations and early language ability.

RESUMEN

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated vocalization and language environment longitudinally in infants with cleft palate (CP) based on day-long audio recordings collected in their natural environments. DESIGN: Language Environment Analysis (LENA) data from all-day recordings at home were collected at 3-month intervals for infants from 4-6 to 16-18 months of age. The recordings were analyzed using experimentally blinded human coding as well as LENA automated analysis. PARTICIPANTS: Ten infants with CP (± cleft lip) and 10 age-matched infants without CP. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Several measurements were obtained from the LENA automated analysis software. In addition, human coded measurements of vocalization and language environment, including the true canonical babbling ratio and the infant-directed speech ratio, were analyzed for each time point of data collection for each infant. Statistical analyses were performed to conduct group and age comparisons for each measure of vocalization and language environment. RESULTS: No group differences emerged in number of syllables produced. Infants with CP exhibited late onset and fewer productions of canonical syllables compared to infants without CP. Infants with CP did not show significant differences from infants without CP in measures related to language environment across ages. CONCLUSION: This study provides detailed information through naturalistic all-day home recordings about vocal development and early language environments in infants with CP before and after palatal repair. Clinical implications for early intervention are discussed.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Maternal depression and anxiety are potential risk factors to children's language environments and development. Though existing work has examined relations between these constructs, further work is needed accounting for both depression and anxiety and using more direct measures of the home language environment and children's language development. We examined 265 mother-infant dyads (49.6% female, Mage = 17.03 months) from a large city in the Western United States to explore the relations between self-reports of maternal depression and anxiety and observational indices of the home language environment and expressive language as captured by Language Environment Analysis (LENA) and parent-reported language comprehension and production. Results revealed maternal depressive symptoms to be negatively associated with home language environment and expressive language indices. Maternal anxiety symptoms were found to be negatively associated with children's parent-reported language production. These findings provide further evidence that maternal mental health modulates children's home language environments and expressive language.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Using a meta-analytic approach, we evaluate the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and children's experiences measured with the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system. Our final analysis included 22 independent samples, representing data from 1583 children. A model controlling for LENATM measures, age and publication type revealed an effect size of r z = .186, indicating a small effect of SES on children's language experiences. The type of LENA metric measured emerged as a significant moderator, indicating stronger effects for adult word counts than child vocalization counts. These results provide important evidence for the strength of association between SES and children's everyday language experiences as measured with an unobtrusive recording analyzed automatically in a standardized fashion.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Words sound slightly different each time they are said, both by the same talker and across talkers. Rather than hurting learning, lab studies suggest that talker variability helps infants learn similar sounding words. However, very little is known about how much variability infants hear within a single talker or across talkers in naturalistic input. Here, we quantified these types of talker variability for highly frequent words spoken to 44 infants, from naturalistic recordings sampled longitudinally over a year of life (from 6 to 17 months). We used non-contrastive acoustic measurements (e.g., mean pitch, duration, harmonics-to-noise ratio) and holistic measures of sound similarity (normalized acoustic distance) to quantify acoustic variability. We find three key results. First, pitch-based variability was generally lower for infants' top talkers than across their other talkers, but overall acoustic distance is higher for tokens from the top talker versus the others. Second, the amount of acoustic variability infants heard could not be predicted from, and thus was not redundant with, other properties of the input such as the number of talkers or tokens, or proportion of speech from particular sources (e.g., women, children, electronics). Finally, we find that patterns of pitch-based acoustic variability heard in naturalistic input were similar to those found with in-lab stimuli that facilitated word learning. This large-scale quantification of talker variability in infants' everyday input sets the stage for linking naturally occurring variability "in the wild" to early word learning.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: Exposure to the voice and language during the critical period of auditory development associated with the third trimester is thought to be an essential building block for language. Differences in the auditory experience associated with early life in the NICU may increase the risk of language delays for premature infants. NICU nurses are fundamental in the care of premature infants; how they use their voices may be important in understanding auditory experiences in the NICU. This study examined voice use behaviors of NICU nurses in the United States and their current knowledge of early auditory development. METHOD: An opt-in, online questionnaire. RESULTS: Nurses reported using their voice more as the age of infants approached term gestation and speaking to infants was the most common type of voice use. Both infant and nurse factors influenced reported voice use decisions in the NICU. Nurses did not believe the NICU auditory environment to be sufficient to meet early auditory needs of premature infants but did believe that premature infants are exposed to adequate voice sounds. CONCLUSIONS: A gap in knowledge regarding the importance of early exposure to voice sounds may be a barrier to nurses using their voices to support early auditory development.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

The home language environment is critical to early language development and subsequent skills. However, few studies have quantitatively measured the home language environment in low-income, developing settings. This study explores variations in the home language environment and child language skills among households in poor rural villages in northwestern China. Audio recordings were collected for 38 children aged 20-28 months and analyzed using Language Environment Analysis (LENA) software; language skills were measured using the MacArthur-Bates Mandarin Communicative Developmental Inventories expressive vocabulary scale. The results revealed large variability in both child language skills and home language environment measures (adult words, conversational turns, and child vocalizations) with 5- to 6-fold differences between the highest and lowest scores. Despite variation, however, the average number of adult words and conversational turns were lower than found among urban Chinese children. Correlation analyses did not identify significant correlations between demographic characteristics and the home language environment. However, the results do indicate significant correlations between the home language environment and child language skills, with conversational turns showing the strongest correlation. The results point to a need for further research on language engagement and ways to increase parent-child interactions to improve early language development among young children in rural China.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Digital media (DM), such as cellphones and tablets, are a common part of our daily lives and their usage has changed the communication structure within families. Thus, there is a risk that the use of DM might result in fewer opportunities for interactions between children and their parents leading to fewer language learning moments for young children. The current study examined the associations between children's language development and early DM exposure. Participants: Ninety-two parents of 25months olds (50 boys/42 girls) recorded their home sound environment during a typical day [Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA)] and participated in an online questionnaire consisting of questions pertaining to daily DM use and media mediation strategies, as well as a Swedish online version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory, which includes a vocabulary scale as well as a grammar and pragmatics scale. Results: Through correlations and stepwise regressions three aspects of language were analyzed. The child's vocabulary was positively associated with interactional turn-taking. The child's vocabulary and grammar were negatively associated with the likelihood of parent's device use during everyday child routines and the amount of TV watched by the child. The child's pragmatic development was also positively associated with the parent's device use in child routines but also with the parent's joint media engagement (JME), as well as the child's gender (where girls perform better). Conclusion: Our study confirms that specific aspects of the 2-year old's DM environment are associated with the child's language development. More TV content, whether it is viewed on a big screen or tablet, is negatively associated with language development. The likelihood of parents' use of DM during everyday child routines is also negatively associated with the child's language development. Positive linguistic parental strategies such as interactional turn-taking with the child, JME, and book reading, on the other hand, are positively associated with the child's language development.