Language ENvironment Analysis Research Articles

The validity of the Language Environment Analysis system in two neonatal intensive care units.

To evaluate the validity of the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system's automatic measures in two neonatal intensive care units supporting parent-infant closeness, and in two Finno-Ugric languages: Finnish and Estonian. The sound environment of 70 very preterm infants was recorded for 16h in the neonatal intensive care units with the LENA system roughly at the gestational age of 32 (+2) weeks. Of these, the recordings of 14 infants (20%, two 5-min samples with a high percentage of speech, totally 140min) were analysed in detail and in two different ways. Parental closeness diaries were used to document the presence of the parents. Agreements between LENA system and human coder estimates were analysed. Findings showed a high variation in agreements. The highest agreements were found in female and adult word counts (r=0.91 and 0.95). The agreements for child vocalisation count, conversational turns and silence were modest or low (r=-0.03 to 0.64). Our study provides novel information on the validity of the LENA system in the neonatal intensive care unit. Findings show that the LENA system provides valid information on adult words, but LENA estimates for child vocalisations were less valid at this early age.

Exposure to electronic media between 6 and 24 months of age: An exploratory study

This study explores the associations between electronic media exposure, age, and socioeconomic status (SES) in a longitudinal sample of 24 infants from English-speaking families. Leveraging Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) technology, the study seeks to characterize the relation between electronic media exposure and parental and child vocal activity. We analyzed ecologically valid, daylong audio recordings collected in infants’ homes when they were 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months old. SES was measured with the Hollingshead Index, and exposure to electronic media and adult and infant vocal activity were measured automatically with LENA. On average, the children in the sample were exposed to 58 min of electronic media daily. We found that electronic media exposure was negatively associated with SES and decreased with child age, but only amongst high-SES families. We also found that electronic media exposure negatively impacted concurrent adult and child vocal activity, irrespective of SES and infant age. The present findings are an important step forward in examining the role of demographic factors in exposure to electronic media and enhance our understanding of the mechanisms through which exposure to electronic media may impact linguistic development in infancy and beyond.

Listening to a siblings’ day: musical interactions in a family setting

ABSTRACT This study examines musical episodes occurring in a family with two young children, collected and analysed through the Language Environment Analysis system, interpreting then using Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory to understand how the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem influenced these episodes. The focus was on two sibling musical interactions, based on the recorded soundscape of Anna and her younger brother, Albert. The data includes 26 hours of audio recording that enabled us to capture the same episodes from the perspective of each child. Four themes emerged from the data analysis: (1) the type of engagement; (2) siblings’ roles; (3) children’s repertoire; and (4) car rides as a family setting. We hope to support and inform parents and teachers, making them aware of rich musical interactions among children and their potential for development through an expert member intervention in situations of musical parenting and formal and informal teaching.

Comparing Automatic and Manual Measures of Parent–Infant Conversational Turns: A Word of Caution

The Language ENvironment Analysis system (LENA) records children’s language environment and provides an automatic estimate of adult–child conversational turn count (CTC). The present study compares LENA’s CTC estimate to manually coded CTC on a sample of 70 English‐speaking infants recorded longitudinally at 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months of age. At each age, LENA’s CTC was significantly higher than manually coded CTC (all ps < .001, Cohen’s ds: 0.9–2.05), with the largest discrepancies between the two methods observed at younger ages. The Limits of Agreement Analyses confirm wide disagreements between the two methods, highlighting potential problems with automatic measurement of parent–infant verbal interaction. These findings suggest that future studies should validate LENA’s CTC estimates with manual coding.

Capturing talk and proximity in the classroom: Advances in measuring features of young children's friendships

Young children's friendships fuel essential developmental outcomes (e.g., social-emotional competence) and are thought to provide even greater benefits to children with or at-risk for disabilities. Teacher and parent report and sociometric measures are commonly used to measure friendships, and ecobehavioral assessment has been used to capture its features on a momentary basis. In this proof-of-concept study, we use Ubisense, the Language ENvironmental Analysis (LENA) recorder, and advanced speech processing algorithms to capture features of friendship – child-peer speech and proximity within activity areas. We collected 12,332 1-second speech and location data points. Our preliminary results indicate the focal child at-risk for a disability and each playmate spent time vocalizing near one another across 4 activity areas. Additionally, compared to the Blocks activity area, the children had significantly lower odds of talking while in proximity during Manipulatives and Science. This suggests that the activity areas children occupy may affect their engagement with peers and, in turn, the friendships they development. The proposed approach is a groundbreaking advance to understanding and supporting children's friendships.

Influence of Quiet Time on the Auditory Environment of Infants in the NICU

ObjectiveTo determine the influence of quiet time on the auditory environment of infants in the NICU and to compare the effect of quiet time by room type, bed type, and infant clinical acuity. DesignCross-sectional, descriptive comparison study. ParticipantsSixty-six infants born at less than 38 weeks gestation who were between 32 and 40 weeks postmenstrual age. SettingThe auditory environments of infants in two level 3 NICUs within a pediatric hospital system in the Southeastern United States. Each NICU implemented quiet time for 4 hours per day. MethodsWe assessed the auditory environment of the participants using Language Environmental Analysis technology. We used paired t tests to assess differences in the auditory environment during quiet versus nonquiet time and to compare the effect of quiet time by room type, bed type, and clinical acuity. ResultsDuring quiet time, the auditory environment of participants had 13% more silence, 17% fewer electronic sounds, 25% less speech, and 30% fewer words than during nonquiet time. We observed greater differences in quiet time versus nonquiet time for infants in open bays and incubators and infants who had greater acuity. ConclusionOur results support the implementation of quiet time to increase silence and reduce exposure to electronic sounds for infants in the NICU. Additional research is necessary to further examine the effect of quiet time on the auditory environment of infants in the NICU with consideration of environmental and clinical variables.

The Challenge of Listening at Home: Speech and Noise Levels in Homes of Young Children With Hearing Loss.

The objective of this study was to characterize the acoustics of the home environment of young children with hearing loss. Specifically, we aimed to quantify the range of speech levels, noise levels, and signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) encountered by children with hearing loss in their homes. Nine families participated in the study. The children with hearing loss in these families were between 2 and 5 years of age. Acoustic recordings were made in the children's homes over one weekend (Saturday and Sunday) using Language ENvironmental Analysis (LENA) recorders. These recordings were analyzed using LENA's proprietary software to determine the range of speech and noise levels in the child's home. A custom Matlab program analyzed the LENA output to estimate the SNRs in the children's homes. The average SNR encountered by children with hearing loss in our sample was approximately +7.9 dB SNR. It is important to note that our analyses revealed that approximately 84% of the SNRs experienced by these children with hearing loss were below the +15 dB SNR recommended by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association. Averaged across families, speech and noise levels were 70.1 and 62.2 C-weighted decibels, respectively. These data show that, for much of the time, young children with hearing loss are forced to listen under suboptimal conditions in their home environments. This has important implications as listening under these conditions could negatively affect learning opportunities for young children with hearing loss. To mitigate these potential negative effects, the use of assistive listening devices that improve the SNR (e.g., remote microphone systems) should be considered for use at home by young children with hearing loss.

Validation of the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system for Dutch.

The validity of the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) System was evaluated for Dutch. 216 5-min samples (six samples per age per child) were selected from daylong recordings at 5, 10 and 14 months of age of native Dutch-speaking younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (N = 6) and of typically developing children (N = 6). Two native Dutch-speaking coders counted the amount of adult words (AWC), child vocalisations (CVC) and conversational turns (CT). Consequently, correlations between LENA and human estimates were explored. Correlations were high for AWC at all ages (r = .73 to .81). Regarding CVC, estimates were moderately correlated at 5 months (r = .57) but the correlation decreased at 10 (r = .37) and 14 months (r = .14). Correlations for CT were low at all ages (r = .19 to .28). Lastly, correlations were not influenced by the risk status of the children.

Cochlear implant datalogging accurately characterizes children’s ‘auditory scenes’

Objectives: This study sought to determine if children’s auditory environments are accurately captured by the automatic scene classification embedded in cochlear implant (CI) processors and to quantify the amount of electronic device use in these environments. Methods: Seven children with CIs, 36.71 (SD = 11.94) months old, participated in this study. Three of the children were male and four were female. Eleven datalogs, containing outcomes from Cochlear’s™ Nucleus® 6 (Cochlear Corporation, Australia) CI scene classification algorithm, and seven day-long audio recordings collected with a Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA; LENA Research Foundation, USA) recorder were obtained for analysis. Results: Results from the scene classification algorithm were strongly correlated with categories determined through human coding (ICC = .86, CI = [−0.2, 1], F(5,5.1) = 5.9, P = 0.04) but some differences emerged. Scene classification identified more ‘Quiet’ (t(8.2) = 4.1, P = 0.003) than human coders, while humans identified more ‘Speech’ (t(10.6) = −2.4, P = 0.04). On average, 8% (SD = 5.8) of the children’s day was spent in electronic sound, which was primarily produced by mobile devices (39.7%). Discussion: While CI scene classification software reflects children’s natural auditory environments, it is important to consider how different scenes are defined when interpreting results. An electronic sounds category should be considered given how often children are exposed to such sounds.

Associations Between Maternal Stress, Early Language Behaviors, and Infant Electroencephalography During the First Year of Life.

Associations have been observed between socioeconomic status (SES) and language outcomes from early childhood, but individual variability is high. Exposure to high levels of stress, often associated with low-SES status, might influence how parents and infants interact within the early language environment. Differences in these early language behaviors, and in early neurodevelopment, might underlie SES-based differences in language that emerge later on. Analysis of natural language samples from a predominantly low-/mid-income sample of mother-infant dyads, obtained using the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system, found that maternal reports of exposure to stressful life events, and perceived stress, were negatively correlated with child vocalizations and conversational turns when infants were 6 and 12 months of age. Greater numbers of vocalizations and conversational turns were also associated with lower relative theta power and higher relative gamma power in 6- and 12-month baseline EEG - a pattern that might support subsequent language development.

Symposium 5: Measuring stress and development in context: Opportunities, challenges, and adaptations

As the awareness of the impact of early life stress grows, researchers are increasingly attempting to adapt measures of stress and its impacts to be collected outside of highly controlled laboratory settings They are also seeking measures that can be reliably collected on young children to reveal the impacts of chronically stressful contexts of rearing These endeavors bring opportunities and challenges, not the least of which is how to discuss stress research with the families and communities most affected In this symposium we will describe several studies attempting to collect child and family data in the community, the challenges of doing such research, and concerns about how these findings will be translated to the communities involved Beginning in pediatric primary care clinics, Emily Reilly will describe efforts to assess preschooler executive function development during pediatric well-child visit and implications for future practice, including the possibility of screening Turning to large-scale community research, Dr Santiago Morales will discuss the challenges and adaptations to collecting electroencephalography (EEG) data from hundreds of children across different research sites Moving into the home, Dr Lara Pierce will demonstrate the feasibility and challenges of collecting language input from full-day, home language recordings using Language Environmental Analysis (LENA) and associations with maternal stress and infant neurodevelopment Finally, Dr Philip Fisher will describe timely and valuable work to capture the impact of COVID-19 on families and children in weekly, nationally representative surveys

Associations between maternal stress, early language behaviors, and infant electroencephalography during the first year of life

Associations have been observed between socioeconomic status (SES) and language outcomes from early childhood, but individual variability is high. Exposure to high levels of stress, often associated with low-SES status, might influence how parents and infants interact within the early language environment. Differences in these early language behaviors, and in early neurodevelopment, might underlie SES-based differences in language that emerge later on. Analysis of natural language samples from a predominantly low-/mid-income sample of mother-infant dyads, obtained using the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system, found that maternal reports of exposure to stressful life events, and perceived stress, were negatively correlated with child vocalizations and conversational turns when infants were 6 and 12 months of age. Greater numbers of vocalizations and conversational turns were also associated with lower relative theta power and higher relative gamma power in 6- and 12-month baseline EEG - a pattern that might support subsequent language development.

The Natural Language Environment of 9-Month-Old Infants in Sweden and Concurrent Association With Early Language Development.

The language environment is important for the development of early communication and language. In the current study, we describe the natural home language environment of 9-month-old infants in Sweden and its concurrent association with language development. Eighty-eight families took part in the study. The home language environment was measured using the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system, and language development was assessed using Swedish Early Communicative Development Inventory (SECDI), a parent questionnaire. LENA measures showed dramatic variation between individuals but were comparable to and showed overlapping variance with previous studies conducted in English-speaking households. Nonetheless, there were significantly more infant vocalizations and conversational turns in the present study than in one previous study. Adult word count correlated significantly and positively with infants’ Use of gestures and the subscale of that section Communicative gestures. These together with another four non-significant associations formed a consistent overall pattern that suggested a link between infants’ language environment and language development. Although the direction of causality cannot be determined from the current data, future studies should examine children longitudinally to assess the directionality or the bidirectionality of the reported associations between infant’s language environment and language development.

Natural Language Input: Maternal Education, Socioeconomic Deprivation, and Language Outcomes in Typically Developing Children.

Purpose The current study was designed to investigate the differences in language input related to family factors (maternal level of education [MLE] and socioeconomic level of deprivation [SLD]) and their association with language outcomes in preschoolers. Method This study used New Zealand SLD and MLE classification systems to examine differences in language input related to these factors among 20 typically developing preschool children aged 2-5 years. The quantity of children's language input (adult words [AWs], conversational turns [CTs]) was calculated using the Language ENvironment Analysis audiotaping technology for two typical weekend days. Four 5-min Language ENvironment Analysis recording segments were transcribed and coded, and parental language strategies were classified as optimal language strategy, moderate language strategy, or sub-optimal language strategy (S-OLS) for child language outcomes. The receptive and expressive language of each child was assessed using the Preschool Language Scales-Fifth Edition. Results Mann-Whitney U tests showed significant differences between the quantity of language input (AWs/hr, CTs/hr) for high and low MLE and high and low SLD groups. Consistent with the literature, the use of S-OLSs was significantly lower for families with high MLE (Mdn = .25, IQR = .14) and low SLD (Mdn = .22, IQR = .13) than for families with low MLE (Mdn = .41, IQR = .24) and high SLD (Mdn = .41, IQR = .26). Spearman correlation coefficients indicated significant associations between language input (AWs/hr, CTs/hr, S-OLSs) and language outcomes. Conclusions Reduced language input and the frequent use of S-OLSs associated with low maternal education and high deprivation and low language outcomes for these children highlight the importance for all parents/families to learn optimal language strategies to support the development of strong language skills in their children in young age.

Accuracy of the Language Environment Analyses (LENATM) system for estimating child and adult speech in laboratory settings.

Laboratory observations are a mainstay of language development research, but transcription is costly. We test whether speech recognition technology originally designed for day-long contexts can be usefully applied to this use-case. We compared automated adult word and child vocalization counts from Language Environment Analysis (LENATM) to those of transcribers in 20-minute play sessions with Spanish-speaking dyads (n = 104) at 1;7 and 2;2. For adult words, results indicated moderate associations but large absolute differences. Associations for child vocalizations were weaker with larger absolute discrepancies. LENA has moderate potential to ease the burden of transcription in some research and clinical applications.

Language Environments and Spoken Language Development of Children With Hearing Loss.

This study examined the relationships between adult language input and child language production in regard to the quantity and diversity of spoken language, as well as children's knowledge of basic concepts and vocabulary. The quantity and diversity of language provided by teachers and parents were related to children's language output and knowledge. Language ENvironment Analysis technology audio-recorded the language environments of 26 preschool children with hearing loss over 2 days. The language samples were analyzed for quantity (adult word count, child vocalization count, and conversational turn count) and diversity (lexical diversity, syntactical complexity, and clausal complexity) of language. Results indicated a relationship between adult language input and child language production, but only in regard to the quantity of language. Significant differences between the teachers and parents were reported in regard to the diversity of adult language input. These results suggest that the language input provided by adults across environments (school versus home) is considerably different and warrants further investigation.

The Distributed L1 and L2 Language-Learning Environments of Dual Language Learners Across Home and School Settings.

Purpose This study explored the language-learning environments of typically developing dual language learners (DLLs) who learned Cantonese (first language [L1]) at home and English (second language [L2]) in preschool settings through direct and indirect measures. Method Nine typically developing Cantonese-English DLLs participated in this study. Participants' daylong activities were audio-recorded using the digital language processor of the Language ENvironment Analysis system. A manual coding scheme was developed to examine the audio recordings with the focus of the amount of L1 and L2 used by participants, adults, and their peers across home and school settings. In addition, participants' language use was indirectly examined using parent questionnaires, teacher reports, and classroom observations. Results The results of the audio recordings showed that Cantonese was the primary language used at home, and both Cantonese and English were used in school settings, consistent with the parent and teacher reports. Correlation analyses revealed that the amount of L1 used by the participants was associated with the L1 used by their peers: and the amount of L2 used by participants was positively related to the L2 used by adults at home. Conclusions The findings illustrate how parent/teacher reports and daylong audio recordings could complement each other in the investigation of DLLs' language-learning environments.

Investigating Cumulative Exposures among 3- to 4-Year-Old Children Using Wearable Ultrafine Particle Sensors and Language Environment Devices: A Pilot and Feasibility Study.

Interdisciplinary approaches are needed to measure the additive or multiplicative impacts of chemical and non-chemical stressors on child development outcomes. The lack of interdisciplinary approaches to environmental health and child development has led to a gap in the development of effective intervention strategies. It is hypothesized that a broader systems approach can support more effective interventions over time. To achieve these goals, detailed study protocols are needed. Researchers in child development typically focus on psychosocial stressors. Less attention is paid to chemical and non-chemical stressors and how the interaction of these stressors may impact child development. This feasibility study aims to bridge the gap between child development and environmental epidemiology research by trialing novel methods of gathering ultrafine particle data with a wearable air sensor, while simultaneously gathering language and noise data with the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system. Additionally, psychosocial data (e.g., parenting quality, caregiver depression, and household chaos) was gathered from parent reports. Child participants (age 3–4 years) completed cognitive tasks to assess self-regulation and receptive language skills, and provided a biospecimen analyzed for inflammatory biomarkers. Data collection was completed at two time points, roughly corresponding to fall and spring. Twenty-six participants were recruited for baseline data, and 11 participants completed a follow-up session. Preliminary results indicate that it is feasible to gather personal Particulate Matter (PM2.5), language, and noise data, cognitive assessments, and biospecimens from our sample of 3-4-year-old children. While there are obstacles to overcome when working with this age group, future studies can benefit from adapting lessons learned regarding recruitment strategies, study design, and protocol implementation.

Home Use of Remote Microphone Systems by Children with Hearing Loss

Home Use of Remote Microphone Systems by Children with Hearing Loss

Circumspection in using automated measures: Talker gender and addressee affect error rates for adult speech detection in the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system.

Automatic speech processing devices have become popular for quantifying amounts of ambient language input to children in their home environments. We assessed error rates for language input estimates for the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) audio processing system, asking whether error rates differed as a function of adult talkers' gender and whether they were speaking to children or adults. Audio was sampled from within LENA recordings from 23 families with children aged 4-34 months. Human coders identified vocalizations by adults and children, counted intelligible words, and determined whether adults' speech was addressed to children or adults. LENA's classification accuracy was assessed by parceling audio into 100-ms frames and comparing, for each frame, human and LENA classifications. LENA correctly classified adult speech 67% of the time across families (average false negative rate: 33%). LENA's adult word count showed a mean +47% error relative to human counts. Classification and Adult Word Count error rates were significantly affected by talkers' gender and whether speech was addressed to a child or an adult. The largest systematic errors occurred when adult females addressed children. Results show LENA's classifications and Adult Word Count entailed random - and sometimes large - errors across recordings, as well as systematic errors as a function of talker gender and addressee. Due to systematic and sometimes high error in estimates of amount of adult language input, relying on this metric alone may lead to invalid clinical and/or research conclusions. Further validation studies and circumspect usage of LENA are warranted.