Identification of Differences in Verb Learning between Late Talkers and Typically Developing Children

识别晚说话者和正常发育儿童之间动词学习的差异

• 批准号: 10577014
• 负责人: Sabrina Elise Horvath
• 金额: $ 18.88万
• 依托单位: MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-09-16 至 2025-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10577014
• 关键词: 2 year old; 6 year old; Age; Child; Data; Development; Etiology; Event; Failure; Foundations; Future; Goals; Hearing; Individual; Intervention; Knowledge; Label; Language; Language Development; Language Disorders; Learning; Linguistics; Literature; Longevity; Longitudinal Studies; Longitudinal trends; Measures; Outcome; Pathologist; Pattern; Performance; Play; Process; Production; Regression Analysis; Research; Research Personnel; Risk; Role; Running; Sampling; Sign Language; Speech; Structure; Testing; Toddler; Training; Vocabulary; design; developmental disease; effective intervention; efficacious intervention; executive function; hearing impairment; individual response; insight; language disorder diagnosis; language outcome; language processing; lexical; literacy; novel; outcome prediction; peer; processing speed; skills; social skills; success; syntax; visual tracking; word learning

PROJECT SUMMARY Absent known deficits such as hearing loss or developmental disorder, approximately 15% of two-year-olds nevertheless have atypically small expressive vocabularies. These “late talkers” (LTs) are at increased risk for a later diagnosis of language disorder, and even those LTs who are not diagnosed still have poorer long-term language outcomes as compared to their typically developing peers (TDs). At present, we do not know why some children struggle to develop their vocabularies, and we are unable to predict which LTs are at greatest risk for language disorder. This project focuses on toddlers’ verb vocabularies because of the role that verbs play in developing grammar. Difficulty with verbs is considered a warning sign for later language disorder, and children with language disorder in turn struggle particularly with verbs. To learn new verbs, toddlers use information derived from the surrounding linguistic context, such as sentence structure. However, this ability is predicated on preexisting knowledge of verbs. Concerningly, our prior research indicates that LTs and TDs differ in early verb knowledge: LTs have more result verbs (i.e., verbs that denote the result of an event, such as “break”) than manner verbs (i.e., verbs that denote how an event unfolds, such as “run”) in their vocabularies. This pattern mimics biases for result over manner meanings observed in older children with language disorder. However, TDs have more manner than result verbs throughout development. In contexts where verb learning is dependent on knowledge of manner versus result meanings, LTs and TDs are likely to perform differently. In Aim 1/Study 1, we consider one such manipulation: Whether the sequencing of the linguistic information (i.e., the verb) and its referent action impacts verb learning. TDs appear to learn manner verbs best when the verb precedes the action, but they learn result verbs best when the verb follows the action. However, older children with language disorder better learn verbs when they follow the action, irrespective of verb meaning. We hypothesize that LTs will show the same pattern as older children with language disorder because they also have a bias for result over manner verbs. If true, this would be the first demonstrated verb learning difference between LTs and TDs. Learning a verb’s meaning from its linguistic context also requires that children be able to process the given linguistic information. Conversely, children who do not process the linguistic context fail to learn new verb meanings. It has been hypothesized that children who are faster linguistic processors are better verb learners, but this has not yet been demonstrated experimentally. In Aim 2/Study 2, we consider the relationship between concurrent processing of familiar words and performance on a verb-learning task (i.e., Study 1). We hypothesize that for both LTs and TDs, those who are faster to process familiar words will also be better at verb learning. The final sample will include 52 toddlers (26 LTs; 26 TDs, ages 24.0 – 30.9 months) who will complete both studies. Data will be collected using eye tracking, and regression analyses will be used to test our hypotheses. Results from Aim 1/Study 1 will support future research on verb-learning interventions for LTs. Results from Aim 2/Study 2 will provide the basis for future longitudinal studies aimed at predicting outcomes for LTs.

项目总结 在没有听力损失或发育障碍等已知缺陷的情况下，大约15%的两岁儿童 尽管如此，他们的表现力词汇却少得离谱。这些“晚说话的人”(LT)有更高的风险。 语言障碍的诊断，即使是那些没有被诊断出的LTS，长期语言结果仍然较差 与其典型的发展中同行(TD)相比。目前，我们不知道为什么有些孩子会挣扎着发展 他们的词汇量，我们无法预测哪些LT有最大的语言障碍风险。 该项目关注幼儿的动词词汇，因为动词在语法发展中起着重要作用。 动词困难被认为是后来语言障碍的警告信号，反过来，患有语言障碍的儿童 尤其是在动词方面。为了学习新的动词，蹒跚学步的孩子使用从周围语言中获得的信息 语境，如句子结构。然而，这种能力是建立在已有的动词知识基础上的。令人担忧的是， 我们之前的研究表明，LTS和TDS在早期动词知识上存在差异：LTS有更多的结果动词(即 表示事件的结果，如“Break”)，而不是方式动词(即，表示事件如何展开的动词，如 在他们的词汇表中)。这一模式模拟了在年龄较大的儿童中观察到的结果对方式意义的偏见 语言障碍。然而，在整个发展过程中，TDS的方式动词多于结果动词。在动词所在的上下文中 学习依赖于对方式和结果意义的知识，LTS和TDS的表现可能不同。 在目标1/研究1中，我们考虑了一种这样的操作：语言信息的排序(即， 动词)及其所指动作会影响动词的学习。TDS似乎最能学习方式动词，当动词在 动作，但当动词跟在动作后面时，他们学习结果动词的效果最好。然而，患有语言障碍的大龄儿童 当动词跟随动作时，最好学习它们，而不考虑动词的意思。我们假设LTS也会显示同样的结果 大一点的孩子有语言障碍，因为他们也偏爱结果动词而不是方式动词。如果为真，则这 这将是LTS和TDS之间第一个被证明的动词学习差异。 从动词的语境中学习动词的意义还要求儿童能够理解给定的 语言信息。相反，不处理语境的儿童无法学习新的动词意义。它 已经假设语言处理器越快的孩子学习动词的能力越好，但这还没有得到证实 通过实验进行了演示。在目标2/研究2中，我们考虑了熟悉任务的并发加工之间的关系 动词学习任务中的单词和表现(即研究1)。我们假设，对于LTS和TDS，那些 更快地处理熟悉的单词也会更好地学习动词。 最终的样本将包括52名幼儿(26名LTS；26名TDS，年龄在24.0-30.9个月之间)，他们将完成这两项任务 学习。数据将通过眼球跟踪收集，回归分析将用于检验我们的假设。结果 来自目标1/研究1的研究将支持未来关于母语动词学习干预的研究。目标2/研究2的结果将 为未来旨在预测LTS结果的纵向研究提供基础。