Children's real-time language processing and verb learning during interactions with caregivers

New York University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

Learning language is one of the most fundamental tasks children face in the first few years of life. Children who struggle with this task are at higher risk of experiencing difficulties in school, as well as challenges at work and in relationships with loved ones and in the community. A key factor in successful language learning is the richness of the language children hear from their caregivers. To understand why some children develop strong language skills and others do not, it is essential to understand how caregivers adapt their language to match their child's needs and abilities. This project will study how caregivers adapt their language when introducing new words to their children, and how this affects the way children learn the words. This project will also train students, teachers, and parents to better understand child language learning. The experiments in this project are based on a game that caregivers and children play together. The game allows researchers to test how quickly and how well children discover the meanings of new words. The children who participate in this research will be 2-, 3-, and 4-year-old children acquiring English as their first language. The research team will measure children's language comprehension and language learning using state-of-the-art eye-tracking techniques. This technique involves showing children several pictures, one of which their caregiver describes using a word that is unfamiliar to the child, and then analyzing whether and how quickly children direct their gaze to the correct picture as it described. These data will reveal what features of caregiver speech best support children's language comprehension and learning of the unfamiliar word. Results of the research will be shared with other child language researchers and will also be used to create easy-to-use educational materials that will give parents and teachers strategies for supporting children in their language learning. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.