Speech and Nonspeech Predictors of Later Language Development

大量的研究调查了婴儿是如何学习母语的。这些研究表明，许多早期的感知技能和经验为语言习得铺平了道路，并且可能被认为是发展语言技能的关键基础。特别是，研究表明婴儿？将语音流分离成单个单词的能力，以及他们在输入中跟踪统计关系的能力（统计学习）可能是语言学习的先决技能，婴儿接受的母亲输入可能也起着重要作用。目前的研究旨在通过实验来验证这一假设。研究人员将测试同一组婴儿在7至11个月大的分割和统计学习，同时评估母亲对他们的投入。研究人员还将在一年后对这些孩子进行一系列语言和认知方面的评估。通过这样做，我们将能够评估婴儿早期能力和经历的差异是否可以预测语言发展成功与否的不同模式。鉴于文献中大量强调统计学习和分割，从这些研究中获得的见解将对语言习得领域的研究产生深远的影响。更好地理解分词和统计学习之间的关系，将有助于在理论和实践上就每一种或两者对语言发展的相对重要性进行辩论。这项研究将极大地增强我们对不同婴儿能力与后期语言发展之间关系的理解，并为语言习得如何建立在早期感知技能和经验的基础上提供更细致入微的理论。最后，研究结果最终可以帮助我们更早地识别出有语言迟缓风险的儿童，并为研究人员和干预主义者提供指导，指导他们设计和测试干预计划的下一步。该项目还将为大量本科生和研究生提供教育机会。这项研究结果的广泛传播将加强其影响。除了在研究期刊和会议上发表外，PI先前关于这一主题的研究还出现在全国和世界各地的各种电视和广播新闻报道中，并出现在几本面向广大受众的育儿杂志上。

A great deal of research has investigated how infants learn their native language. Such research has suggested that a number of early perceptual skills and experiences pave the way for language acquisition, and might be considered as critical underpinnings for developing language skills. In particular, research has suggested that infants? ability to separate streams of speech into individual words, and their ability to track statistical relationships in the input (statistical learning) might be prerequisite skills for language-learning, and that the maternal input an infant receives may also play a substantial role. The current research aims to test this hypothesis experimentally. The investigators will test the same group of infants on both segmentation and statistical learning between 7 and 11 months of age, while appraising maternal input to them. The investigators will also evaluate these same children a year later, on a range of language and cognitive measures. In so doing, we will be able to evaluate whether differences in infants' early abilities and experiences might predict distinct patterns of more and less successful language development. Given the substantial emphasis on statistical learning and segmentation in the literature, the insights gained from these studies will have profound implications for research in the area of language acquisition. A better understanding of the relationship between segmentation and statistical learning will inform the debate on the relative importance of each or both to language development, both theoretically and practically. This research will greatly enhance our understanding of the relationship among different infant abilities and later language development, and lead to more nuanced theories of how language acquisition builds on early perceptual skills and experiences. Finally, results could eventually lead to earlier identification of children at known-risk for language delay and in turn provide guidance to researchers and interventionists about potential next steps in designing and testing intervention programs. This project also will provide educational opportunities for a large number of undergraduate and graduate students. The impact of this research will be enhanced by broad dissemination of the results. In addition to publication in research journals and at conferences, the PI's prior research on this topic has appeared on a variety of television and radio news reports across the country and the world, and has appeared in several parenting magazines intended for broad audiences.