SGER: Regularities in Children's Word Learning Input: 24/7 Observation and Analysis

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

Language is one of the pinnacles of human cognition, and the process by which infants and toddlers acquire language is nothing less than remarkable. In ways that we do not yet fully understand, language is learned over months of interaction between the child and his or her language environment. A detailed record of this process would be of great value in furthering our understanding of language development as well as other aspects of development, but such a record has heretofore been unavailable. With funding from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Roy will create the most detailed to date of a single child's development. He will collect audio and video recordings for the first three years of one child's life, in its entirety, as it unfolds in the child's home. These recordings will be analyzed to create an unprecedented record of the interactions and environmental cues that contribute to the acquisition of language, as well as other social, cognitive, and motor skills. Dr. Roy's research will focus on the process by which this child learns his first words, but Dr. Roy's efforts will result in the creation of data and tools that will be of great value to many other researchers in a wide range of academic disciplines. The present award will help with these efforts by supporting the initial stages of data recording and analysis.