Early childhood language environments predict outcomes in adolescence: results from a 10-year longitudinal study using automated analysis

Abstract

Purpose: Decades of research have established the importance of the early language environment for healthy brain development (Hoff & Naigles, 2002; Landry, Smith & Swank, 2006; Rowe, 2008), showing that differences in both quantity and quality of language experience (i.e., “word gap” effects) are directly related to academic disparities in grade school (Hart & Risley, 1995; Walker, Greenwood, Hart & Carta, 1994). Although logistics associated with transcribing spoken language have heretofore made it impractical to apply this information in a pediatric setting, we can now automatically analyze daylong recordings …