Infant and Child Language Centre at NUS

After 14 wonderful years, we are closing our doors. The Infant and Child Language Center will cease operations at the end of July 2024. Our lab director, Dr. Leher Singh, has taken an academic position in the U.S. and will move out of Singapore. We have very much enjoyed working with all of the wonderful families and the baby scientists that have participated in our studies. You have each helped to further our understanding of how children develop in very important ways. Please accept our sincere gratitude and best wishes for the future.

Do language strategies facilitate word learning in single- and dual-language contexts?

Bilingual children are a growing population in society, but not much is known about how they learn words and what strategies can help them learn these words. The present study by Libersky and colleagues (2024) aimed to understand how bilinguals learn new words, and to test the strategy of one-parent-one-language in an empirical setting to understand how it facilitates development.

4-5 year-old English-Spanish bilinguals were tested in 2 experiments, during which they were the names and properties of novel objects with pseudowords (non-words that sound like real words) in both English and Spanish. Participants in the first experiment were assigned to either a single-language condition or dual-language condition; the first condition consisted of children learning the words in a single language only (i.e. English) from a single speaker. The second condition consisted of children learning the words in both English and Spanish, from the same bilingual speaker. In the second experiment, only the dual-language condition was used, and children were taught the labels of words in English and Spanish from 2 different speakers (i.e. one speaking English and one speaking Spanish). This experiment was designed to test the effectiveness of the one-parent-one-language strategy.

The results of the first and second experiment revealed that bilingual children showed reduced word learning in the dual-language condition relative to the single-language condition, and performance was not influenced by language ability. Furthermore, there was no evidence to show that assigning a language to each speaker in the dual-language condition improved word learning. Nevertheless, children still successfully learned object labels, and there was no evidence of competition between the two languages. Taken together, the findings suggest that L1 proficiency supports L2 learning, and that word learning strategies such as one-parent-one-language do not confer unique advantages to word learning.

If you would like to read this article in full, you can access the following link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105953

Does gesture predict language development in South Korean infants?

One of the most well-known precursors to language development is gesture use. Gesture use (e.g., showing, giving, pointing) in early childhood is reliably associated with language outcomes, such as vocabulary knowledge. However, although this association is fairly robust in Western cultures, not much is known about the role of gestures in non-Western contexts, where cultural norms pertaining to language habits are very different. For example, although children across cultures show similar gesture use, the age and frequency at which they start to use it is different. The present study highlighted by Shin and colleagues (2024) aims to address this gap by examining gesture use among Korean mothers and children.

Mothers and their 14-month-old children were assessed during a laboratory play session for gesture use, and subsequent vocabulary data were collected when children were 36 months old. Results revealed that much like Western families, Korean mother-infant dyads also used a variety of gestures, most of which were pointing showing. In addition, they also used showing and giving gestures as frequently. A unique form of conventional gestures to South Korean culture is bowing, which was also observed between mothers and infants during the play session, suggesting early socialization patterns in young infants. The variety of mothers’ use of gestures predicted infants’ variety in use, and this in turn predicted their vocabulary skill at 36 months old, which underscores the importance of gesture use in South Korean infants’ language development. In particular, pointing was the most predictive of language outcomes, which is similar to findings from Western research. Taken together, the study highlights the beneficial role of early gesture use and modeling for young infants, who benefit from learning how to correlate gestures with meaning, thereby boosting vocabulary.

If you would like to read this article in full, you can access the following link: https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12585

How does digital media use impact children’s cognitive development?

Digital media use is a multifaceted concept that goes beyond screen time to include content, context, and usage patterns. Research shows that cognitive development in children can be influenced by digital media, especially in the first 36 months when children experience rapid developmental changes.

The present study by Pedrotti and colleagues (2024) aims to understand the impact of digital media on children’s cognitive development, by evaluating content of the media, screen time, context of media usage, and maternal mental health using surveys. The results revealed that generally, children’s screen time increased with age. In this sample of Brazilian children (high SES), screen time in general was not correlated with cognitive development. However, viewing non-educational content negatively predicted cognitive development, while viewing educational content and media use in the context of parental interaction (i.e. mediated use) had no significant influence on cognitive development. Lastly, using more than one screen at once was particularly detrimental for children’s cognitive development.

These findings importantly highlight the importance of viewing contextually relevant media, and how viewing must be mediated by a parent (with a parent’s supervision) for children’s cognitive development, and suggest that guidance is essential for parents to expose their children to screen media responsibly, in a way that does not influence their development negatively.

If you would like to read this article in full, you can access the following link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2024.101963

We wish everyone celebrating a blessed and joyous Hari Raya Haji!

Wishing all our lovely, dedicated fathers a Happy Father's Day!

How does sustained use of pacifiers in early childhood impact language development?

Pacifiers, often used to soothe and comfort children, relieve pain, and reduce the risk of infant death, has also been studied widely for its association with physical development and language skills. Prolonged pacifier use has been linked to higher risks of ear infections, which in turn complicate the process of language acquisition. Past studies have suggested that pacifier use disrupts speech and sound perception, as well as neural processing of speech. Against the backdrop of these studies, the current study by Muñoz et al. (2024) aimed to understand how pacifier use may influence vocabulary development.

12 and 24-month Norwegian monolingual children were invited to participate in this study; parents were asked to report on daily pacifier use retrospectively, meaning that they would recall the frequency of pacifier use in the child’s life in 2-month intervals from birth to the time of assessment. In addition, parents reported on children’s receptive and expressive vocabulary abilities. The results of this study demonstrated that increased lifespan pacifier use was associated with lower vocabulary size for both production and comprehension in 12 month-olds, and in production only for 24 month-olds. In addition, increased pacifier use with age adversely affected vocabulary production and comprehension at both ages. Lastly, pacifier use later in life had a stronger negative correlation with vocabulary size compared to earlier use. Taken together, the findings suggest caution with the use of pacifiers for a prolonged period of time.

If you would like to read this article in full, you can access the following link: https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13477

What are the roles of family and community in a bilingual child’s development?

Language development is shaped by social interactions in both home and community settings. When considering the factors influencing language uptake, it is essential to look at societal, family and community characteristics to understand how children are influenced by each part of their environment. The present study by MacLeod and colleagues (2024) uses the ecological systems model to understand the influence of family and community on bilingual children’s language acquisition. This model takes into account influences at the macro level (society and community), and micro level (family and school).

MacLeod and colleagues (2024) collected vocabulary information from 5-year-old children learning French and English living in Canada. Their sociolinguistic contexts differed, as the children were from various areas of Canada where either English or French are spoken widely, in differing amounts. Families of the participants were also asked about language strategies used at home (e.g., one-parent-one-language, minority language at home, etc.). The findings of the study revealed that in language minority areas, the presence of the minority language supported bilingual development, and children’s vocabulary development was strong in both languages learned. Family language strategies also significantly influenced language exposure, which was also linked to vocabulary. This was particularly pronounced for families who used the minority language at home, and children from these homes showed stronger vocabulary in the minority language. Taken together, the study highlights the importance of family and community in shaping bilingual development, and in particular, how family strategies contribute to language acquisition.

If you would like to read this article in full, you can access the following link: https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2022.2034830

Hey everyone! The NUS Infant and Child Language Centre invites all aspiring little scientists between the ages of 8 months to 12 months who have been primarily exposed to Mandarin, to participate in our research studies on language development! Our studies are typically conducted at our lab in NUS, and are designed to be short, baby-friendly, not too stimulating, and enjoyable for the whole family. Baby scientists will receive a small gift and certificate for their participation, along with travel reimbursement and an optional informal developmental assessment. If you're interested to participate in a study, head on over to this link to let us know! https://nus.syd1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_brSQBj9RsdWwdhQ

Does language background influence social biases for foreign accents in childhood?

Language and manner of speaking, including accents, can influence perceptions of personal traits such as friendliness, competence, and credibility. From early on in childhood, children show preferences for listening to native over foreign language or accented speakers. While most studies have been conducted on monolingual children, bilingual children present a unique population who may be more forgiving or accepting of accented speech because of their naturally diverse language environments. However, although children growing up in largely bilingual societies may have less of this social bias, bilingual children who grow up in monolingual cultures, such as in Czech, may still hold a social bias for accented speech.

This study conducted by Jarůšková & Chládková (2023) aims to replicate findings of social preferences for native-accented peers among monolingual Czech children and investigate whether bilingualism influences these preferences. 5- and 6-year-old monolingual and bilingual Czech-learning children took part, and were presented with sentences spoken by either a native or foreign accented speaker. After listening to the sentences, they were asked to select which speaker they would rather be friends with.

The results of the study revealed that all children showed a preference for native-accented peers, and this preference was around three times that of their preference for foreign accents. Interestingly, this preference was slightly less pronounced for the bilingual group, who still showed a preference for native accents, but to a lesser extent than their monolingual peers. These findings suggest that language background can attenuate social biases around language and manner of speaking.

If you would like to read this article in full, you can access the following link: https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2023.2257189

Happy Vesak Day to all who are celebrating!

How good are toddlers at detecting phonological variation during word learning?

Phonological categories, which differentiate sounds such as /p/ and /b/, play a crucial role in how words are learned and recognized. Several factors impact children's ability to recognize words, and this includes task demands, acoustic-phonetic variability, word familiarity, and the number of phonetic features that are changed. In particular, acoustic-phonetic variability refers to the change in prosody (tone or pitch) that occurs when learning words from various speakers or in various contexts in a child’s environment. The present study by Quam & Swingley (2023) aimed to investigate how toddlers resolve phonological deviance, or mispronunciations, for newly learned words.

2-year-old English learning children were recruited for this study and were tested alongside adults, who were recruited to provide an expected developmental endpoint of word recognition and mispronunciation detection. The participants in this study were trained to learn a new word, and were subsequently tested on their knowledge of the word, which included instances of mispronunciation by varying the initial consonant of the word. This tests the participants’ phonological sensitivity - or in other words, how well they learned the phonological properties of the new word. While adults showed robust word learning and were able to detect mispronunciations, toddlers showed word learning but were unable to correctly reject mispronounced word forms, suggesting that their phonological sensitivity was not yet present for newly learned words. The findings imply that toddlers' phonological representations are developing and not yet fully refined to detect subtle consonant changes in newly learned words, especially under hyper-articulated and variable conditions.

If you would like to read this article in full, you can access the following link: https://doi.org/10.1080/10489223.2022.2069026