Doctoral Dissertation Research:From babbling to linguistically-relevant articulatory gestures: Continuity and variability of speech motor organization in infants and young children

在Ludo Max博士的指导下，Margaret Earnest女士将为她的博士论文收集数据。她的研究包括三项研究，调查婴儿和6至37个月大的儿童的嘴唇和下巴运动的控制和协调。越来越多的证据表明，从咿呀学语到有意义的言语的过渡是一个关键阶段，在这个阶段，运动限制可能决定了语音习得的重要方面。与这种转变相关的一个主要问题是，它是否反映了一个逐渐和连续的成熟，或者早期的语言是否需要对先前获得的运动技能进行广泛的重组。因此，Earnest女士的两项研究将调查以下方面的发展趋势：(a)单个发音器（嘴唇和下巴）对双唇闭合和张开手势的各自贡献，以及(b)这些发音运动在言语产生过程中的典型不对称性质。她的第三项研究将研究婴儿选择下颚作为呀呀学语和早期语言产生的主要发音器官的潜在神经运动基础。这三个问题中的每一个都将通过使用基于相机的运动跟踪系统记录嘴唇和下巴的运动并比较不同年龄组的各种运动学参数来解决。这项研究是早期发展的口面部控制，以牙牙学语和说话是有意义的，有几个原因。首先，它将导致对儿童语言发展背后的神经运动过程的新见解。第二，加强对言语运动发展不同阶段的理解，可能对解释在咿呀学语和早期说话期间语音习得顺序中普遍观察到的趋势至关重要。第三，考虑到这种对语音习得顺序的潜在影响，语言运动能力的发展所施加的限制可能会影响语言发展的其他方面。

Under the direction of Dr. Ludo Max, Ms. Margaret Earnest will collect data for her doctoral dissertation. Her research includes three studies investigating the control and coordination of lip and jaw movements in infants and children from 6 to 37 months of age. This work builds on increasing evidence that the transition from babbling to meaningful speech is a crucial stage during which motor constraints may determine important aspects of speech sound acquisition. One major question related to this transition is whether it reflects a maturation that is gradual and continuous or whether early speech requires an extensive reorganization of the previously acquired motor skills. Therefore, two of Ms. Earnest's studies will investigate developmental trends in (a) the respective contribution of individual articulators (lips and jaw) to bilabial closing and opening gestures, and (b) the typically asymmetric nature of these articulatory movements during speech production. Her third study will examine the potential neuromotor basis for infants' selection of the jaw as the primary articulator in babbling and early speech production. Each of these three questions will be addressed by recording movements of the lips and jaw with a camera-based movement tracking system and comparing a variety of kinematic parameters across different age groups.This research on the early development of orofacial control for babbling and speech is significant for several reasons. First, it will lead to new insights into the neuromotor processes underlying speech development in children. Second, an enhanced understanding of the different stages of speech motor development may be critical for explaining commonly observed trends in the sequence of speech sound acquisition during babbling and early speech. Third, given this potential influence on the order of speech sound acquisition, the constraints imposed by developing speech motor abilities may affect other aspects of language development.