Neural and environmental mechanisms of language development during the first three years of life

项目摘要/摘要 这项建议的目的是了解社会经济的神经和环境机制。 (SES)36个月大儿童语言发展的差异。在大一点的学龄儿童中， 父母语言输入的质量在统计上中介了SES对大脑发育的影响，进而影响了大脑的发育 会影响儿童的语言成绩。尽管这些发现在年龄较大的儿童中表现得很好，但他们 还没有在三岁以下的儿童中进行检查，这是大脑成熟最快的时期。这个 这项建议的主要目标是研究社会经济地位、父母语言输入和大脑之间的关系 以及出生后头三年的儿童语言行为指数。努力审查环境问题 而幼儿语言的神经机制受到了小样本和 方法上的挑战。例如，目前还不清楚是否有方法自动估计父母 语言输入在非白人和社会经济不同的人群中产生了可靠的估计。这 拟议的研究将通过对现有的 社会经济和种族多样化的母亲和儿童的纵向数据集(N=253)。我们的首要目标是 方法，并将检查自动生成的和手动编码的测量之间的可靠性 父母语言输入。目标2-3涉及父母语言的额外转录和手工编码 测试SES、语言输入、结构和功能大脑之间的纵向联系的输入 衡量标准和语言结果。我们假设SES对36个月大的儿童语言的影响将是 通过父母的语言输入和30个月大时大脑区域的结构/连通性进行调节。这个 建议的工作很重要，因为基于SES的儿童语言能力差异具有长期性 教育程度下降、职业地位下降、身体和精神状况变差的含义 健康，增加各种死亡原因的风险。通过识别调节近端体验 SES对儿童语言结果的影响在三岁时，我们可以确定预防的可操作目标 以及早期干预努力，以改善儿童和家庭的福祉。

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT The objective of this proposal is to understand the neural and environmental mechanisms of socioeconomic (SES) differences in 36-month-old children’s language development. In older school-aged children, the quantity and quality of parental language input statistically mediates effects of SES on brain development, which in turn impacts children’s language outcomes. Although these findings are well-characterized in older children, they have yet to be examined in children under age three, the time when brain maturation is most rapid. The primary objective of this proposal is to examine the relation between SES, parental language input, and brain and behavioral indices of child language during the first three years of life. Efforts to examine environmental and neural mechanisms of language in young children have been hindered by small samples and methodological challenges. For instance, it is not clear whether approaches to automatically estimate parental language input produce reliable estimates in non-White and socioeconomically diverse populations. This proposed study will overcome previous challenges by employing secondary data analysis on an existing longitudinal dataset of socioeconomically and racially diverse mothers and children (N=253). Our first aim is methodological and will examine reliability between automatically generated and manually coded measures of parental language input. Aims 2-3 involve additional transcription and manual coding of parents’ language input to test the longitudinal association between SES, language input, structural and functional brain measures, and language outcomes. We hypothesize that SES effects on child language at 36 months will be mediated by parental language input and the structure/connectivity of brain regions at 30 months. The proposed work is important because SES-based differences in child language ability have long-term implications for decreased educational attainment, lower occupational status, poorer physical and mental health, and increased risk for all-causes of mortality. By identifying the proximal experiences that mediate effects of SES on child language outcomes at age three, we may identify actionable targets for preventative and early intervention efforts to improve child and family wellbeing.