Caregiver linguistic alignment to autistic and typically developing children

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Fusaroli ◽  
Ethan Weed ◽  
deborah fein ◽  
Letitia Naigles

Background: Language development is a highly interactive activity. However, most research on linguistic environment has focused on quantity and complexity of linguistic input to children, with current models showing that complexity facilitates language in both TD children and autistic children.Aims: We investigate the presence and sensitivity of caregivers’ active reuse of their children’s language (linguistic alignment), and how well it predicts language development beyond other measures of linguistic input, taking also into account the child’s cognitive, social and linguistic abilities.Methods: We measure lexical, syntactic and semantic types of caregiver alignment in a longitudinal corpus involving 32 adult-autistic child and 35 adult-TD child dyads, with children between 2 and 5 years of age. We assess the extent to which caregivers repeat their children’s word, syntax and semantics, and whether this predicts language development beyond more standard predictors. Results: Caregivers tend to re-use their child’s language in a way that is related to the child’s individual, primarily linguistic differences. Caregivers’ alignment provides unique information improving our ability to predict future language development in both typical and autistic children. Conclusions: We provide evidence that language acquisition also relies on interactive conversational processes, previously understudied. We share open-source scripts to systematically extend our approach to new contexts and languages.

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 485-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenni Heikkilä ◽  
Eila Lonka ◽  
Sanna Ahola ◽  
Auli Meronen ◽  
Kaisa Tiippana

PurposeLipreading and its cognitive correlates were studied in school-age children with typical language development and delayed language development due to specific language impairment (SLI).MethodForty-two children with typical language development and 20 children with SLI were tested by using a word-level lipreading test and an extensive battery of standardized cognitive and linguistic tests.ResultsChildren with SLI were poorer lipreaders than their typically developing peers. Good phonological skills were associated with skilled lipreading in both typically developing children and in children with SLI. Lipreading was also found to correlate with several cognitive skills, for example, short-term memory capacity and verbal motor skills.ConclusionsSpeech processing deficits in SLI extend also to the perception of visual speech. Lipreading performance was associated with phonological skills. Poor lipreading in children with SLI may be, thus, related to problems in phonological processing.


Gesture ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 155-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Capirci ◽  
Annarita Contaldo ◽  
Maria Cristina Caselli ◽  
Virginia Volterra

The present study reports empirical longitudinal data on the early stages of language development. The main hypothesis is that the output systems of speech and gesture may draw on underlying brain mechanisms common to both language and motor functions. We analyze the spontaneous interaction with their parents of three typically-developing children (2 M, 1 F) videotaped monthly at home between 10 and 23 months of age. Data analyses focused on the production of actions, representational and deictic gestures and words, and gesture-word combinations. Results indicate that there is a continuity between the production of the first action schemes, the first gestures and the first words produced by children. The relationship between gestures and words changes over time. The onset of two-word speech was preceded by the emergence of gesture-word combinations. The results are discussed in order to integrate and support the evolutionary and neurophysiological views of language origins and development.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riana Agustin Tindjabate

Child language acquisition is influenced by many factors including family factors. Chomsky theories on child language acquisition say that a child born with language skills that are hardwired in the brain. The system will work optimally with the development age of the child so that the child does not need others to help his language development. It is not fully accepted by other linguists because some people think that the parents are very instrumental factor in the development of children's language. This study focuses on the input of parents were given to children in linguistic through interaction and methods of reading the story.


Kalbotyra ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 7-25
Author(s):  
Ingrida Balčiūnienė ◽  
Laura Kamandulytė-Merfeldienė

[full article and abstract in English] This paper describes The Corpus of Lithuanian Children’s Language and its possible applications for modern studies on the first language acquisition. First of all, the procedure of data collection for the Corpus is discussed. Furthermore, the main methodological principles of longitudinal and experimental data compilation and transciption are decribed. Finally, different studies in developmental psycholinguistics which have been carried out so far and which demonstrate possible ways of the application of the Corpus data for different scientific purposes are introduced. The Corpus of Lithuanian Children’s Language developed at Vytautas Magnus University comprises typical and atypical, longitudinal and experimental data of the Lithuanian language development. The Corpus was compiled using different methodological approaches, such as natural observation and semi-experiment. The longitudinal data (conversations between the target children and their caretakers) compiled according to the requirement of natural observation includes transcribed and morphologically annotated speech of two typically-developing children, one late talker, one early talker, one child from a low SES family, and a pair of twins. The data was collected during the period of 1993–2017 and and it can be divided into three cohorts. The semi-experimentaldata (~ 124 hours) comes from numerous studies in narratives and spontaneous dialogues elicited from typically-developing and language-impaired monolingual and bilingual (pre-) school age children. From the very beginning of data collection for the The Corpus of Lithuanian Children’s Language, studies in the develomental changes of typical child language have been carried out. Over the past decade, these studies have been supplemented by statistical analysis of elicited semi-experimental data; the majority of these studies deal with typical vs. atypical (delayed or impaired) language acquisition and with differences between acquision of Lithuanian in a monolingual vs. bi-/polylingual settings. The paper provides an overview of data of The Corpus of Lithuanian Children’s Language, which have been collected from 1993 but still needed to be structurized according to the employed methodology of data compilation and possible applications for different scientific purposes.


2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 581-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
KRISTINE M. YONT and ◽  
CATHERINE E. SNOW ◽  
LYNNE VERNON–FEAGANS

A rather robust literature exists that views children's language development in the context of interactions with adults. This literature generally focuses on typically developing children and suggests that joint attention facilitates communication development whereas directives do not. In order to understand the crucial features of input supporting language acquisition, research must examine children in less than optimal conditions, including children with chronic otitis media (OM). Controversy exists regarding the outcomes of children with OM, and we argue that parental input is an important factor often neglected in research that may mediate language outcomes. The current study investigates whether parents interact differently with their 12-month-old children based upon children's OM status. The results indicate that parents of chronically affected children direct attention more often and engage in fewer joint attentional episodes than parents of nonchronically affected children. Findings suggest that chronic OM has a localized affect on attentional interactions, the forms of input consistently implicated in language acquisition. Thus, children with OM may receive less than optimal input than peers.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 1336-1340
Author(s):  
Judith F. Kroll ◽  
Andrea Takahesu Tabori ◽  
Emily Mech

Infants are exposed to the language of the environment in which they are born and, in most instances, become native speakers of that language. Although the history of research on language acquisition provides a colorful debate on the specific ways that nature and nurture shape this process (e.g., MacWhinney, 1999; Pinker, 1995), its primary focus has been on typically developing children exposed to a single language from birth. Pierce, Genesee, Delcenserie, and Morgan (2017) turn the table on this discussion to argue that critically important lessons can be learned by shifting the focus from typically developing children to children for whom the trajectory of language learning follows a different course. Some of the variation in language development reflects attributes of child learners themselves, such as whether they are born hearing or deaf and whether they have conditions that disrupt their ability to fully perceive the speech input to which they are exposed. Other variations reflect attributes of the external conditions in which learners develop, including whether they remain in their country of birth or move to a location in which another language is spoken, whether exposure to the native language is continuous or disrupted, and whether they are exposed to a second language (L2) early or late in development. For deaf children, there is also variation in whether their parents or caregivers are themselves deaf or hearing and able to expose them to sign language during infancy. Pierce et al. use the diversity of early language experience as a tool to examine the relation between phonological working memory and language development and to begin to suggest how conditions that may produce costs or benefits in language learning may be related to one another.


2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
PASTORA MARTÍNEZ-CASTILLA ◽  
VESNA STOJANOVIK ◽  
JANE SETTER ◽  
MARÍA SOTILLO

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to compare the prosodic profiles of English- and Spanish-speaking children with Williams syndrome (WS), examining cross-linguistic differences. Two groups of children with WS, English and Spanish, of similar chronological and nonverbal mental age, were compared on performance in expressive and receptive prosodic tasks from the Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech–Communication Battery in its English or Spanish version. Differences between the English and Spanish WS groups were found regarding the understanding of affect through prosodic means, using prosody to make words more prominent, and imitating different prosodic patterns. Such differences between the two WS groups on function prosody tasks mirrored the cross-linguistic differences already reported in typically developing children.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 324
Author(s):  
Ramandeep Kaur ◽  
Jiji K.V. ◽  
Subbarao T A

Language is a human system of communication that uses arbitrary signal such as voice sounds, gestures and or written symbols. Language acquisition refers to the way the child acquires or learns a language. It is a hierarchical process which has specific age for achieving each process. Syntax, a component of language is defined as the study of principles and process by which sentences are constructed in particular languages. Understanding language development and syntax levels helps us determine the child’s language adequacy. Solid syntactic skills require an understanding and use of correct word order and organisation in phrases and sentences with appropriate morphosyntactic operations. The morpho syntactical language includes plural markers, case markers, PNG markers etc. the study focuses on development of PNG markers among children who are native speakers of Hindi language. The study highlights the need to carry out more research in this area for better understanding of language acquisition among these children in order to develop both assessments and intervention programmes. Presently, the lack of acquisition data has hinged the development of any standardized tests in Hindi. Thereby, the study aims to explore PNG markers in Hindi speaking typically developing children with the objective of analysing the data of among these children across 4 to 6yrs. The results show that most of these markers developed by 4years of age. Most importantly as age increased these markers also increased. By 6 years of age most of these markers developed completely. The study also discusses various studies supporting the results.


Author(s):  
Elham Masoumi ◽  
Zahra Malmir ◽  
Zahra Soleymani ◽  
Mina Mohammadi Nouri

Introduction: Expressive vocabulary plays a vital role in child language development, and its assessment can be one of the essential indicators to identify language developmental delay, especially in children with Down syndrome. We developed a list of expressive vocabulary and compared the size and class of expressive vocabularies between typically developing and Down syndrome children. Materials and Methods: Expressive vocabulary of 150 children was examined  in  this study. A total of 120 typically developing Farsi-speaking children (in four age Groups, with   a 6-month interval) and 30 children with Down syndrome (aged 24-48 months) participated in this study. The parents of the children filled out the form that included 636 words from different vocabulary classes. These classes were based on studies that investigated language development in Farsi-speaking children. Results: The expressive vocabulary size in Farsi-speaking children was significantly higher than in Down syndrome children (P≤0.001). There was no statistically significant difference between boys and girls regarding expressive vocabulary size in two Groups of children. The size of nouns in all age Groups is more than other classes, and the size of conjunctions in all age Groups is less than the other ones. A direct correlation was found between age and the size of expressive vocabulary. Conclusion: According to the study findings, the list of expressive vocabulary can detect delays in developing expressive vocabulary.


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