Adult Word Research Articles

Late Components of Event-Related Potentials Elicited by Reading Words in Children, Adolescents, and Adults

Late Components of Event-Related Potentials Elicited by Reading Words in Children, Adolescents, and Adults

The home environment and its relation to vocalizations in the first year of life.

Background:Prior data has shown that the home environment impacts child development; however, there remains a paucity of research on how the home environment relates to child and adult words. Therefore, the aim of this prospective and quantitative study was to examine the relationship between the home environment and the quantity of vocalizations or words, and conversational turns produced by infants and parents at 3 and 12 months of age.Methods:Seventy-two (56% male) full-term infants were assessed at 3 and 12 months of age. The home environment was assessed in person via interview and observation of the child’s home using the Infant-Toddler Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (IT-HOME) Inventory subscales. Vocalizations were measured using the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) device, which measures the adult word count, child vocalization count and conversational turn count. These measures were then averaged for the most voluble, or vocal hour, in the recording period.Results:At 3 months, IT-HOME Learning Materials scores were significantly associated with a decrease in adult words. We found a statistically significant difference in LENA outcomes between 3 and 12 months when stratified by sex. Specifically, male infants had significantly fewer vocalizations at 12 months when compared to 3 months, whereas females had more vocalizations. There was also a statistically significant difference in IT-HOME Learning Materials, Organization, Responsivity, and Total scores when comparing 3- and 12-month time points.Conclusions:These findings reveal that the home environment changes significantly over the first year of life. At 3 months, Learning Materials in the home were related to adult words, while between 3 and 12 months, several aspects of the home significantly changed. Male children had reduced vocalizations between 3 and 12 months; whereas, female children had increased vocalizations during the same time points. Future research should focus on examining these outcomes with multiple measures, time points, and patient populations.

Facilitative Language Techniques Used in the Home by Caregivers of Young Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing

Purpose This research note reports preliminary data from an investigation of facilitative language techniques (FLTs) used in the natural environment by caregivers of children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). The investigation seeks to establish a new method to collect and analyze data on caregiver FLT use in the home. Method This pilot investigation included two children under the age of 36 months with moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss. Both children were consistent users of hearing devices and were pursing oral communication. Data were collected via the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system in the participants' homes. Thirty-six 5-min segments containing the highest adult word count were extracted from each participant's sample. Researchers coded segments for the presence or absence of 10 FLTs within 30-s intervals. Results The collection, coding, and analysis of caregiver FLTs using LENA was a feasible method to investigate caregiver linguistic input in the natural environment. Despite differences in age, sex, and hearing level, the distribution of caregiver FLTs was similar for both participants. Caregivers used high levels of narration, closed-ended questions, and directives throughout the day. Conclusions Results of this investigation provide information about the types of FLTs that are used in the home by caregivers of young children who are DHH. Furthermore, results indicate the feasibility of this method to investigate in-home use of caregiver FLTs.

The extraction of orthographic and phonological structure of printed words in adults with dyslexia.

The current study investigated the extraction of orthographic and phonological structure of written words in adults with dyslexia. In adults without learning difficulties, Chetail and Content showed that orthographic structure, as determined by the number of vowel letter clusters, influences visual word length estimation. The authors also found a phonological effect determined by the number of syllables of words. In the present study, 22 French-speaking students diagnosed with dyslexia in childhood and 22 students without learning disabilities were compared. All participants performed the task of estimating word length. The pattern of results obtained by Chetail and Content was replicated: length estimates were biased by both the number of syllables and the number of vowel letter clusters. The study showed a significant interaction between phonological bias and group. The phonological effect was less important in students with dyslexia, suggesting reduced sensitivity to phonological parsing in reading. In contrast, the orthographic effect did not differ significantly between groups, suggesting that the sensitivity to the orthographic structure of written words is preserved in students with dyslexia despite their low-quality orthographic representations. We conclude that there is no systematic association between sensitivity to the structure of representations and quality of their content.

Home Auditory Environments of Children With Cochlear Implants and Children With Normal Hearing.

Early home auditory environment plays an important role in children's spoken language development and overall well-being. This study explored differences in the home auditory environment experienced by children with cochlear implants (CIs) relative to children with normal hearing (NH). Measures of the child's home auditory environment, including adult word count (AWC), conversational turns (CTs), child vocalizations (CVs), television and media (TVN), overlapping sound (OLN), and noise (NON), were gathered using the Language Environment Analysis System. The study included 16 children with CIs (M = 22.06 mo) and 25 children with NH (M = 18.71 mo). Families contributed 1 to 3 daylong recordings quarterly over the course of approximately 1 year. Additional parent and infant characteristics including maternal education, amount of residual hearing, and age at activation were also collected. The results showed that whereas CTs and CVs increased with child age for children with NH, they did not change as a function of age for children with CIs; NON was significantly higher for the NH group. No significant group differences were found for the measures of AWC, TVN, or OLN. Moreover, measures of CTs, CVs, TVN, and NON from children with CIs were associated with demographic and child factors, including maternal education, age at CI activation, and amount of residual hearing. These findings suggest that there are similarities and differences in the home auditory environment experienced by children with CIs and children with NH. These findings have implications for early intervention programs to promote spoken language development for children with CIs.

Does narrator variability facilitate incidental word learning in the classroom?

Recent studies have revealed that presenting novel words across various contexts (i.e., contextual diversity) helps to consolidate the meaning of these words both in adults and children. This effect has been typically explained in terms of semantic distinctiveness (e.g., Semantic Distinctiveness Model, Jones et al., Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66(2), 115, 2012). However, the relative influence of other, non-semantic, elements of the context is still unclear. In this study, we examined whether incidental learning of new words in children was facilitated when the words were uttered by several individuals rather than when they were uttered by the same individual. In the learning phase, the to-be-learned words were presented through audible fables recorded either by the same voice (low diversity) or by different voices (high diversity). Subsequently, word learning was assessed through two orthographic and semantic integration tasks. Results showed that words uttered by different voices were learned better than those uttered by the same voice. Thus, the benefits of contextual diversity in word learning extend beyond semantic differences among contexts; they also benefit from perceptual differences among contexts.

409The Word Gap: At What Age Does it Emerge? Results from a Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract Background Language is a critical development accomplishment of early childhood, enabling later literacy, education and employment. Previous studies have highlighted socioeconomic inequalities in the amount parents speak to their child, with researchers estimating by age four parents from professional backgrounds spoke 30 million more words to their children, than parents who were on welfare. Methods This study utilises innovative speech recognition technology called Language Environment Analysis (LENA), which counts the number of words children hear and speak over a day. LENA data is collected once every six months from 6 – 48 months of age, across two cohorts of children who are stratified by two levels of maternal education to examine the effects across socioeconomic groups. Results Results from the first three waves of data collection demonstrate that differences between education groups in the number of adult words spoken to the child are not evident until the children are 18 months old. Average change in adult word counts per day by maternal education show there is a difference of 17 words at 6 months, 568 words at 12 months and 3,851 words at 18 months. Conclusions This is the first study to be able to identify the age when socioeconomic differences in the amount of talk emerge. This has significant implications for the timing of interventions aiming to reduce the word gap, suggesting targeting the implementation of programs prior to 18 months. Key messages Socioeconomic differences in the amount parents talk to their children do not emerge until children are 18 months old.

Clinical Issues-September 2021.

Interviewing the patient about cannabis use Key words: cannabis, marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD), patient interview. AORN guidance for non-OR settings Key words: cardiac catheterization laboratory, endoscopy suite, interventional radiology suite, practice setting, invasive procedure. Using personal continuous positive airway pressure devices in the perioperative setting Key words: continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), home equipment, biomedical engineering, electrical devices. Screening for cognitive impairment in the older adult patient Key words: older adult patient, dementia, delirium, cognitive impairment screening tool, prehabilitation.

How Chatty Are Daddies? An Exploratory Study of Infants' Language Environments.

Purpose Fathers play a critical but underresearched role in their children's cognitive and linguistic development. Focusing on two-parent families with a mother and a father, the present longitudinal study explores the amount of paternal input infants hear during the first 2 years of life, how this input changes over time, and how it relates to child volubility. We devote special attention to parentese, a near-universal style of infant-directed speech, distinguished by its higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation. Method We examined the daylong recordings of the same 23 infants at ages 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months, given English-speaking families. The infants were recorded in the presence of their parents (mother-father dyads), who were predominantly White and ranged from mid to high socioeconomic status (SES). We analyzed the effects of parent gender and child age on adult word counts and parentese, as well as the effects of maternal and paternal word counts and parentese on child vocalizations. Results On average, the infants were exposed to 46.8% fewer words and 51.9% less parentese from fathers than from mothers, even though paternal parentese grew at a 2.8-times faster rate as the infants aged. An asymmetry emerged where maternal word counts and paternal parentese predicted child vocalizations, but paternal word counts and maternal parentese did not. Conclusions While infants may hear less input from their fathers than their mothers in predominantly White, mid-to-high SES, English-speaking households, paternal parentese still plays a unique role in their linguistic development. Future research on sources of variability in child language outcomes should thus control for parental differences since parents' language can differ substantially and differentially predict child language.

Emotional Valence Precedes Semantic Maturation of Words: A Longitudinal Computational Study of Early Verbal Emotional Anchoring.

We present a longitudinal computational study on the connection between emotional and amodal word representations from a developmental perspective. In this study, children's and adult word representations were generated using the latent semantic analysis (LSA) vector space model and Word Maturity methodology. Some children's word representations were used to set a mapping function between amodal and emotional word representations with a neural network model using ratings from 9-year-old children. The neural network was trained and validated in the child semantic space. Then, the resulting neural network was tested with adult word representations using ratings from an adult data set. Samples of 1210 and 5315 words were used in the child and the adult semantic spaces, respectively. Results suggested that the emotional valence of words can be predicted from amodal vector representations even at the child stage, and accurate emotional propagation was found in the adult word vector representations. In this way, different propagative processes were observed in the adult semantic space. These findings highlight a potential mechanism for early verbal emotional anchoring. Moreover, different multiple linear regression and mixed-effect models revealed moderation effects for the performance of the longitudinal computational model. First, words with early maturation and subsequent semantic definition promoted emotional propagation. Second, an interaction effect between age of acquisition and abstractness was found to explain model performance. The theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.

Socioeconomic status correlates with measures of Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system: a meta-analysis.

Using a meta-analytic approach, we evaluate the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and children's experiences measured with the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system. Our final analysis included 22 independent samples, representing data from 1583 children. A model controlling for LENATM measures, age and publication type revealed an effect size of r z = .186, indicating a small effect of SES on children's language experiences. The type of LENA metric measured emerged as a significant moderator, indicating stronger effects for adult word counts than child vocalization counts. These results provide important evidence for the strength of association between SES and children's everyday language experiences as measured with an unobtrusive recording analyzed automatically in a standardized fashion.

Analysis of Real-World Language Use in a Person With Wernicke's Aphasia

Purpose In this study, we evaluate the use of a technology called the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) Pro System to quantify the language of a participant with severe Wernicke's aphasia in their home environment. We aimed to characterize language use at home, particularly as it changed in response to an intensive aphasia treatment. Method The participant was trained to use a wearable recording device pre and post 30 hr of intensive aphasia treatment. LENA software was used to process the language data and to determine word counts and conversational turns and compared to manual analysis. Various communication variables were coded for all conversation samples. Results The participant operated the device independently and provided 30 hr of recordings for analysis. Posttreatment, the participant demonstrated a 78.4% increase in adult word count, a 27.5% increase in conversational turn count, an increase in the number of communication partners, and in the diversity of communication environments. There was a 26% decrease in the amount of time spent on electronics and a 140% increase in the number of instances conversing in a social setting. Manual and automated measures showed poor agreement for this particular participant. Conclusions In this study, we establish the feasibility of using LENA to collect language samples in a participant with severe Wernicke's aphasia in their home environment. Using this method, we were able to characterize and quantify language samples in multiple dimensions before and after language treatment.

Tracking Home Language Production and Environment in Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing.

To use an automated speech-processing technology to identify patterns in sound environments and language output for deaf or hard-of-hearing infants and toddlers. Observational study based on a convenience sample. Home observation conducted by tertiary children's hospital. The system analyzed 115 naturalistic recordings of 28 children <3.5 years old. Hearing ability was stratified into groups by access to sound. Outcomes were compared across hearing groups, and multivariable linear regression was used to test associations. There was a significant difference in age-adjusted child vocalizations (P = .042), conversational turns (P = .022), and language development scores (P = .05) between hearing groups but no significant difference in adult words (P = .11). Conversational turns were positively associated with each language development measure, while adult words were not. For each hour of electronic media, there were significant reductions in child vocalizations (β = -0.47; 95% CI, -0.71 to -0.19), conversational turns (β = -0.45; 95% CI, -0.65 to -0.22), and language development (β = -0.37; 95% CI, -0.61 to -0.15). Conversational turn scores differ among hearing groups and are positively associated with language development outcomes. Electronic media is associated with reduced discernible adult speech, child vocalizations, conversational turns, and language development scores. This effect was larger in children who are deaf or hard of hearing as compared with other reports in typically hearing populations. These findings underscore the need to optimize early language environments and limit electronic noise exposure in children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

The education word gap emerges by 18\u2009months: findings from an Australian prospective study

BackgroundThe idea of the ‘30 million word gap’ suggests families from more socioeconomically advantaged backgrounds engage in more verbal interactions with their child than disadvantaged families. Initial findings from the Language in Little Ones (LiLO) study up to 12 months showed no word gap between maternal education groups.MethodsFamilies with either high or low maternal education were purposively recruited into a five-year prospective study. We report results from the first three waves of LiLO when children were 6, 12 and 18 months old. Day-long audio recordings, obtained using the Language Environment Analysis software, provided counts of adult words spoken to the child, child vocalizations and conversational turns.ResultsBy the time children were 18 months old all three measures of talk were 0.5 to 0.7 SD higher among families with more education, but with large variation within education groups. Changes in talk from 6 to 18 months highlighted that families from low educated backgrounds were decreasing the amount they spoke to their children (− 4219.54, 95% CI -6054.13, − 2384.95), compared to families from high educated backgrounds who remained relatively stable across this age period (− 369.13, 95% CI − 2344.57, 1606.30).ConclusionsThe socioeconomic word gap emerges between 12 and 18 months of age. Interventions to enhance maternal communication, child vocalisations and vocabulary development should begin prior to 18 months.

Practice and Experience Predict Coarticulation in Child Speech

ABSTRACT Much research in child speech development suggests that young children coarticulate more than adults. There are multiple, not mutually-exclusive, explanations for this pattern. For example, children may coarticulate more because they are limited by immature motor control. Or they may coarticulate more if they initially represent phonological segments in larger, more holistic units such as syllables or feet. We tested the importance of several different explanations for coarticulation in child speech by evaluating how four-year-olds’ language experience, speech practice, and speech planning predicted their coarticulation between adjacent segments in real words and paired nonwords. Children with larger vocabularies coarticulated less, especially in real words, though there were no reliable coarticulatory differences between real words and nonwords after controlling for word duration. Children who vocalized more throughout a daylong audio recording also coarticulated less. Quantity of child vocalizations was more predictive of the degree of children’s coarticulation than a measure of receptive language experience, adult word count. Overall, these results suggest strong roles for children’s phonological representations and speech practice, as well as their immature fine motor control, for coarticulatory development.

Graphomotor memory in Exner\u2019s area enhances word learning in the blind

Handwriting is thought to impede vocabulary learning in sighted adults because the motor execution of writing interferes with efficient audiovisual processing during encoding. However, the motor memory of writing may facilitate adult word learning when visual sensory inputs are severely restricted. Using functional MRI, we show that late-blind participants, but not sighted participants, learned novel words by recruiting the left dorsal premotor cortex known as Exner’s writing area and its functional coupling with the left hippocampus. During later recall, the phonological and semantic contents of these words are represented in the activation patterns of the left hippocampus as well as in those of left frontotemporal language areas. These findings suggest that motor codes of handwriting help blind participants maintain word-form representations during learning and retrieval. We propose that such reliance on the motor system reflects a broad architecture of the cerebral language network which encompasses the limb motor system as a hardwired component.

Reconsidering methods for automatic speech processing: The case of the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system

Starting around a decade ago, the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) system for automatic speech processing began to be used widely by both researchers and clinicians in order to derive estimates of numbers of adult words or child vocalizations during day-long audio recordings in naturalistic environments. Widespread adoption was spurred in part by a number of studies of correlational evidence of LENA’s reliability. However, confidence in reliable and valid measurement of metrics of conversational interactions entails consideration of both true accuracy (cf. false positive and false negative rates) for frame-based classification, as well as variability in error rates in counts of communicative vocalizations. This talk reviews evidence indicating highly variable error rates across naturalistic recordings for both frame-based classification and counts of communicative vocalizations. Such findings prompt reconsideration of conditions under which LENA can be used with confidence of both high reliability and high validity for measuring communicative interactions.

Media exposure and language experience: Examining associations from home observations in Mexican immigrant families in the US

The current exploratory study describes exposure to digital media in young children from Mexican immigrant homes and its association with language input and output. Using multiple recordings of children’s home environments, we report on the rate (i.e., percentage of total recording time), language (Spanish or English), and type (adult- or child-directed programming) of auditory media exposure in toddlers under three years of age (N = 30; Mage = 20;3 months). We also examine total adult words and adult-child conversational turns, as indicators of child language input, and the number of child language vocalizations as a measure of early language development. Findings showed that digital media comprised approximately 14 % of the child language environment that families selected to record, with wide variability observed. Children were more likely to be exposed to media in Spanish than English and adult-directed than child-directed programming. Children’s general media exposure was negatively associated with the amount of children’s vocalizations and conversational turns but not the quantity of adult words in the environment, suggesting that the relation between media exposure and child language development is likely not mediated by a general decrease in adult input in Mexican immigrant homes. Instead, media exposure may decrease opportunities for children to engage in conversation and practice language expression, both critical mechanisms for successful language acquisition. Selection of child-directed programming may encourage child vocalizations but is less likely to be in Spanish in these homes, which may reduce opportunities for engagement with Spanish-dominant adults. Together these findings provide a window into the nature of media exposure in children from Mexican immigrant homes and into the associations between media and language input and output. Directions for future research are discussed.

Enhancing the NICU language environment with a neonatal Cuddler program.

ObjectiveTo compare effects of a language intervention on Cuddler and parent adult word counts (AWC), and to compare Cuddler versus parent and nurse-care times.DesignProspective pilot cohort intervention study. Twelve Cuddler-low-visit (≤2/week) infant pairs and 17 high-visit (≥3/week) parent–infant pairs were enrolled. Each had a 16-hour baseline recording (R1) followed by a language curriculum with linguistic feedback and an outcome recording (R2) 1 week later. Bivariate group analyses and longitudinal negative binomial regressions were run.ResultsAfter the intervention, there were non-significant increases in AWC/h for Cuddlers and high-visit parents. Cuddler AWCs were similar to high-visit parents and significantly higher than nurse-care times on both recordings. Within the low-visit group, hourly AWCs were higher when Cuddlers were present versus absent (R1 = 1779 versus 552, R2 = 2530 versus 534, p < 0.0001).ConclusionsNICU language environments are different for low-visit and high-visit infants and Cuddlers can increase infant language exposure in the NICU.

Prediction error boosts retention of novel words in adults but not in children

How do we update our linguistic knowledge? In seven experiments, we asked whether error-driven learning can explain under what circumstances adults and children are more likely to store and retain a new word meaning. Participants were exposed to novel object labels in the context of more or less constraining sentences or visual contexts. Both two-to-four-year-olds (Mage = 38 months) and adults were strongly affected by expectations based on sentence constraint when choosing the referent of a new label. In addition, adults formed stronger memory traces for novel words that violated a stronger prior expectation. However, preschoolers' memory was unaffected by the strength of their prior expectations. We conclude that the encoding of new word-object associations in memory is affected by prediction error in adults, but not in preschoolers.