EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF AR/VR TECHNOLOGIES ON LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY DEVELOPMENT AMONG EFL LEARNERS

Children with congenital hearing loss (HL) have auditory impairments that may place them at increased risk for delays or variability in language development. However, obtaining reliable brain markers for early classification of young children with HL versus those with normal hearing (NH), as well as for precise assessment of HL children's language ability, remains a challenge due to limitations in traditional neuroimaging techniques and theoretical frameworks. To address this gap, we propose the maternal mirror hypothesis, which suggests that brain activities of mothers might mirror or indirectly reflect children's auditory language ability, offering an additional and useful approach for obtaining brain markers of HL children in clinical assessment. Children aged 2-5 years with HL (n = 105) and NH (n = 89), along with their mothers, participated in the study. Brain activity in each mother-child dyad was simultaneously measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) while they watched a silent video together. From these data, we derived maternal and child intrapersonal brain functional connectivity (FC), as well as mother-child intersubject correlation (ISC). Children's language comprehension and production ability were assessed at baseline with a follow-up of their changes over 6 months. We found that maternal brain FC or mother-child ISC outperformed child-based FC in predicting HL children's language comprehension and production, as well as their plastic changes across 6 months. Moreover, brain markers predicting HL children's language ability did not differ between groups of HL and NH, whereas those brain markers that classified HL versus NH group status were not correlated with HL children's language ability. This dissociation suggests distinct neural mechanisms underlying HL pathology with brain deficits versus the compensatory mechanisms with the functional recovery of HL children. These findings support the maternal mirror hypothesis, having the potential to address traditional challenges in early functional assessment and prediction of HL children by providing a novel neuroimaging approach and an original theoretical framework. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.30082027.

In this study, we explore the interconnectedness between children's creativity, social play, and language abilities. The participants were 225 (109 girls, 116 boys) preschool children, from diverse European American, African American, and Hispanic ethnic heritages. We assessed the children in three ways. First, each child completed the Goodenough Harris Draw a Person task as a measure of creativity. Second, we recorded observations of children's social play using time sampling techniques and Howes and Matheson's Peer Play Scale. Finally, performance on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-IV) served as a measure of receptive vocabulary. Correlation analyses revealed a clear relationship between certain types of social play and creativity. For example, higher incidences of solitary, onlooker, and parallel aware play appeared to connect to lower creativity scores. In addition, children's receptive or hearing vocabulary related to specific types of social play, that is, higher instances of parallel play led to lower receptive language scores. In addition, setting shaped language abilities. For example, in one setting, complex relates to increased vocabulary abilities. In contrast, in another setting, simple social and parallel play relates to lower language scores. These findings suggest a positive relationship between children's language abilities, creativity, and play. Such studies help inform classroom curriculum and practice.

Parental involvement, especially home-based involvement and home‒school communication, is an important factor affecting the development of preschool children's language abilities. Although previous studies suggest that parents are important catalysts in shaping children's language achievement, it is still unclear how types of parental involvement affect children's language abilities. This study surveys 874 preschool children in China and finds that home-based involvement boosts children's language abilities via improved approaches to learning. Surprisingly, we also find that home‒school communication negatively predicts children's language abilities via decreased approaches to learning. Moreover, school-based involvement has no significant association with children's language abilities. This study contributes new insights to the literature on children's language abilities by uncovering the various impacts of the subtypes of parental involvement and providing a process explanation accordingly.

Although it is well recognized that parent-child shared reading produces positive effects on children's language ability, the underlying neurocognitive mechanisms are not well understood. Here, we addressed this issue by measuring brain activities from mother-child dyads simultaneously during a shared book reading task using functional near infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning. The behavioral results showed that the long-term experience of shared reading significantly predicted children's language ability. Interestingly, the prediction was moderated by children's age: for older children over 30months, the more the shared reading experience, the better the language performance; for younger children below 30months, however, no significant relationship was observed. The brain results showed significant interpersonal neural synchronization between mothers and children at the superior temporal cortex, which was closely associated with older children's language ability through the mediation of long-term experience of shared reading. Finally, the results showed that the instantaneous quality of shared reading contributed to children's language ability through enhancing interpersonal neural synchronization and increasing long-term experience. Based on these findings, we tentatively proposed a theoretical model for the relationship among interpersonal neural synchronization, shared reading and children's language ability. These findings will facilitate our understanding on the role of shared reading in children's language development.

This study aims to describe the relationship parenting pattern and socioeconomic status through parent’scommunication on children's language ability in Kindergarten of Anjir Muara District. This study uses descriptive quantitative methods. The population were 300 children and sample were 173 people using the proportionate random sampling technique. Data colection uses quesioners and observation. Hypothesis testing uses Path Analysis. The results (1) there is significant relationship between parenting pattern and parent communication (2) there is significant relationship between the socioeconomic status and parent communication (3) there is significant relationship between parents parenting pattern and children's language ability (4) there is significant relationship between family socioeconomic status and children's language ability (5) there is significant relationship between parent communication and children's language ability (6) there is significant indirect relationship parenting pattern, parent’s communication on children's language ability (7) there is significant indirect relationship between socioeconomic status through parental communication on children's language ability.

In the current study, we examined the alignment of language choice of bilingual parent-child dyads in play-based interactions. Forty-four bilingual Spanish-English parent-child dyads participated in a 10-min naturalistic free-play interaction to determine whether bilingual children and their parents respond to each other in the same language(s) across conversational turns and whether children's language ability and children's and parents' language dominance affect language alignment. Children's language ability was indexed by the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment. Logistic regression was used to test the effects of children's language ability and children's and parents' language dominance on the alignment of language choice. Results revealed that children and parents largely aligned their language choice and that children's and parents' language dominance, but not children's language ability, influenced alignment. Patterns of alignment differed between children and parents. Children aligned to their dominant language, and this was true for both English- and Spanish-dominant children. In contrast, English-dominant parents aligned equally to both languages, whereas Spanish-dominant parents aligned significantly more to Spanish. Together, these findings suggest that bilinguals' alignment of language choice is deeply sensitive to language dominance effects in both children and adults but that parents may also choose their language strategically in conversations with their children.

Reciprocal patterns of peer speech in preschoolers with and without hearing loss

This study aimed to determine the influence of picture storybooks on children's language skills at TKN 1 Selat Penuguan. This research employed a quantitative approach using a pre-experimental method with a one-group pretest-posttest design. The population for this study comprised all 17 students from Group B at TKN 1 Selat Penuguan. The sampling technique utilized was total sampling, consisting of all 17 TKN 1 Selat Penuguan students. The instrument used in this study was an observation sheet for children's language abilities. In this research, the dependent variable consisted of two variables: before and after. Consequently, a paired sample t-test was conducted to analyze the data using SPSS software. The study's results indicated a significant difference in the mean language ability scores before and after the implementation of picture storybooks, confirming the effectiveness of this learning medium in enhancing children's language development. This study aligns with previous research findings that also discovered a positive correlation between the use of picture storybooks and early childhood language development.

This paper aims to explore how to effectively utilize transition periods to promote the language development of preschool children. By analyzing the definitions and characteristics of transition periods and preschool children's language abilities, as well as discussing the role of transition periods in early childhood education, it reveals that transition periods serve as important connecting points in the educational process and are of great significance for the development of preschool children's language abilities. The development of language abilities is crucial for children's cognitive, social, and emotional development, hence its importance is emphasized. Furthermore, the paper discusses how transition periods can promote the development of preschool children's language abilities through various teaching strategies and activities, including language-inspired games, storytelling, and role-playing. Finally, the importance of transition periods in the development of preschool children's language abilities is summarized, and prospects for future research directions are proposed, aiming to provide valuable insights for early childhood education practices.

Early childhood is an important period for the development and promotion of children’s language ability, special attention should be paid to the cultivation of children's language ability. The role dialogue and story plot in the story of fairy tales contain lots of language components in this study and is one of the children’s favorite form of activities. In many studies in the literature for preschool children （Mages, 2008; Can- Yaşar, 2009; Laurin, 2010; Ceylan & Ömeroğlu, 2012; Kaya, Günay & Aydın, 2016), all emphasize drama education as an important element of their learning and development. Based on the age characteristics of 4-5year old and two dimensions of children's language ability (listening and expression, reading and narration), four children drama education activities were designed and quasi-experimented in the experimental class. The following conclusions are obtained after the experiment: 1. The children's drama is suitable for promoting the development of 4–5-year-old children's language ability. 2. The children's drama promotes the language ability of 4-5 years old children.

Parental input plays a central role in typical language acquisition and development. In autism spectrum disorder (ASD), characterized by social communicative and language difficulties, parental input presents an important avenue for investigation as a target for intervention. A rich body of literature has identified which aspects of grammatical complexity and lexical diversity are most associated with child language ability in both typical development and autism. Yet, the majority of these studies are conducted with English-speaking children, thus potentially overlooking nuances in parental input derived from cross-linguistic variation. To examine the differences in verbal parental input to Bulgarian- and English-speaking children with ASD. To examine whether aspects of verbal parental input found to be concurrent predictors of English-speaking children's expressive language ability are also predictors of the expressive language of Bulgarian-speaking children with ASD. We compared parental input to Bulgarian-speaking (N=37; 2;7-9;10 years) and English-speaking (N=37; 1;8-4;9 years) children with ASD matched on expressive language. Parent-child interactions were collected during free play with developmentally appropriate toys. These interactions were transcribed, and key measures of parental input were extracted. English-speaking parents produced more word tokens and word types than Bulgarian-speaking parents. However, Bulgarian parents produced more verbs in relation to nouns and used more statements and exclamations but asked fewer questions than English-speaking parents. In addition, child age and parents' use of questions were significant concurrent predictors of child expressive vocabulary. This is one of the first studies to conduct a cross-linguistic comparison of parental input in ASD. The differences found emphasize the need to further study parental input to Bulgarian children and adapt naturalistic parent-mediated interventions to the local language and its specific characteristics. What is already known on the subject A rich body of literature has identified the specific aspects of grammatical complexity, lexical diversity, and question-asking that are concurrently and longitudinally associated with the language ability of children with typical development and of children with ASD. Yet, the majority of these studies are conducted with English-speaking children. What this paper adds to the existing knowledge The present study finds that there are specific differences in verbal parental input to Bulgarian- and English-speaking children with autism in terms of lexical composition and question-asking. Bulgarian parents used more verbs than nouns, and the opposite pattern was found for English-speaking parents. In addition, Bulgarian parents asked fewer questions but used more statements and exclamations. Nevertheless, parental question use was significantly correlated with children's language ability across both groups, suggesting that question-asking should be further examined as a potential target for parent-mediated language interventions for Bulgarian children with autism. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Most language and social communication interventions for autism are designed and piloted with English-speaking children. These interventions are often simply translated and used in different countries, with different populations and in different contexts. However, considering that one of the defining characteristics of autism is language difficulty, more studies should examine (1) how these language difficulties manifest in languages other than English, and (2) what characterizes verbal parental input in these other contexts. Such research investigations should inform future language and social communication interventions. The present study emphasizes the cross-linguistic differences between Bulgarian- and English-speaking parents' verbal input to their children with autism.

Parental socioeconomic status (SES) strongly influences children's language abilities but less is known about its influence on pragmatic abilities (e.g., inferring intentions from relevance implicatures). Moreover, by focussing on SES, the role of socio-cognitive engagement (e.g., joint parent-child interactions) has been overlooked.We tested four- and six-year-old children (n = 92) with a communication task, a questionnaire assessed parents' SES and socio-cognitive engagement.Socio-cognitive engagement predicted children's communication abilities while the parental educational background and income did not. This emphasizes the notion that communication is a highly socio-cognitive task, one which children perform the better the more frequently they engage in socio-cognitive interactions.

The present study examined the extent to which preschool classroom supports—relational support (RS) and instructional support (IS)—are associated with children's language development and whether these associations vary as a function of children's language ability. The language skills of 360 children within 95 classrooms were assessed using an expressive narrative task in the fall and spring of the preschool year, teachers rated RS in the fall, and observations of IS were collected across the year. Research Findings: Hierarchical linear models revealed main effects of IS, but not RS, on preschoolers’ development of expressive language skills. In addition, the associations between RS and IS on children's expressive language development were moderated by children's fall language ability. Specifically, the association between IS and language development was stronger for children with stronger expressive language skills, and the association between RS and language development was stronger for children with weaker expressive language skills. Practice or Policy: These findings suggest that professional development for preschool teachers might focus on aligning classroom supports with the needs of children with weaker language skills who are at risk for difficulty acquiring literacy.

The kidsfluencer phenomenon is increasingly popular in Indonesia, supported by children's advanced language abilities “play a key role in the acquisition process” in language. The main problem in this research relates to understanding children's language acquisition at that age, which is often considered limited to simple words. This study aims to describe the language aspects of a kidsfluencer aged 2 years 11 months through a psycholinguistic approach and examine the supporting factors in the language acquisition process. This research was conducted using a qualitative approach with a descriptive method. The data in this research is in the form of utterances produced by a kidfluencer aged 2 years and 11 months. The data collection techniques applied in this research include documentation, observation, and note-taking. Data analysis was carried out in 3 stages, namely 1) reduction, 2) presentation, and 3) conclusion. The results show that children at this age can compose sentences with clear structures and understand and respond to more complex verbal instructions. This research also reveals the important role of rich verbal interaction in supporting children's language acquisition. The conclusion drawn from this study is that children's language abilities at 2 years and 11 months are more developed than expected, and social interaction and a supportive verbal environment are instrumental in the process.

Previous studies have focused on understanding parental attempts to record language development in children, across many typologically different languages. However, many of these studies restricted their assessment to children up to the age of 3 years. The aim of this paper was to move this boundary by examining language development in typically language developed children older than 3 years. Using the Croatian version of the Communicative Development Inventories III (CDI-III-HR), we investigated the contribution of parental reports of a child's lexical, grammatical, and metalinguistic awareness abilities to general language abilities assessed by clinicians. Participants included the parents of 151 children between the ages of 30 to 48 months, who completed the CDI-III-HR and reported on their child's language abilities. Our results show that age is significantly associated with the lexical, grammatical, and metalinguistic awareness abilities of a child's language development. These findings confirm that all three abilities increase with age and that parents can perceive changes in a child's language development. The subsections of CDI-III-HR were moderately to strongly associated with each other, with the strongest association being between lexicon and grammar, suggesting that they remain closely related after the age of 30 months. Parental assessments of a child's language development are a better predictor of language production than language comprehension, with grammar making the most consistent and significant contribution. This study confirms that the development of grammatical abilities is the most prominent skill between the ages of 30 to 48 months and that parents can observe the transition in the child's language development through their usage of grammar in words to grammar in sentences. Based on the selected sample of children, we discovered different patterns of parental success in assessing the child's language ability. These findings indicate that parents can act as valuable sources of information regarding the child's language abilities, but clinical assessments of early language development should consider many other formal sources of information in addition to parental reports.