Online language processing and semantic development in late-talking infants

描述(由申请者提供)：本项目的广泛目标是促进我们对早期语义发展和语言处理技能如何导致早期婴儿后来语言延迟和障碍的风险的理论理解。我们将检查具有广泛语言能力的婴儿，包括那些说话较晚的婴儿。说话迟缓的婴儿是一群年龄在18-24个月之间，在早期语言测试中低于20%的儿童。虽然许多说话迟缓的孩子确实赶上了他们的同龄人，并表现出典型的语言发育，但有一部分儿童将保持延迟，并接受特定语言障碍(SLI)的诊断。SLI是一种语言障碍，影响近8%的学龄儿童，导致一系列语言技能困难，并可能导致负面的学业和社会后果。患有SLI的儿童通常直到学龄期才被发现，尽管父母经常报告说，他们从婴儿期就开始担心语言发育。不仅迫切需要制定措施，确定哪些儿童在婴儿期和蹒跚学步阶段有最大的语言障碍风险，而且还需要了解这些语言延迟的机制。这些进展有可能对早期语言的早期干预产生至关重要的见解 拖延可能会为这些孩子带来更好的结果。通过研究词汇识别的早期流利性和准确性和词汇发展的早期语义结构这两个有希望的语言延迟标记，本研究旨在进一步提炼在识别语言延迟标记方面已显示出早期前景的措施，并确定这些技能是否偶然相关。我们评估这些因素之间是否存在关系，如果它们结合在一起，可能会提高对3岁时语言技能仍然落后的儿童的认同感。本建议的具体目标是(1)评估语义域知识与18-30个月期间对单词的实时识别之间的关系，(2)探索单词学习、语义发展和加工技能是否以及如何相关，以及(3)评估36个月时的语言结果是否与18-30个月之间获得的早期测量有关。这个项目将强调有效地识别、解释和学习词义之间的关系作为以后语言延迟的标志的能力的重要性，并将深入了解教授单词之间的语义关系作为早期干预的潜在方法的价值。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The broad goal of this project is to advance our theoretical understanding of how early semantic development and language processing skills contribute to early infant risk for later language delays and impairments. We will examine infants with broad spectrum of language abilities, including those who are late-talking. Late talking infants are a group of children between 18-24 months of age who fall below the 20th percentile in early language measures. While many late talking children do catch up with their peers and show typical language growth, a subset will remain delayed and receive a diagnosis of specific language impairment (SLI). SLI is a language disorder that affects nearly 8% of school-aged children and results in difficulties in a range of language skills, and can lead to negative academic and social consequences. Children with SLI are not often identified until they are school-aged, although parents often report concerns about language growth that start from infancy. There is an urgent need not only to develop of measures that can identify which children are at greatest risk for language impairments in infancy and toddlerhood, but also to understand the mechanisms that underlie these language delays. Such advancements, in tandem, have the potential to yield crucial insights into how early intervention for early language delays may yield improved outcomes for these children. By investigating two promising markers of later language delay (1) early fluency and accuracy in lexical recognition, and (2) early semantic structure of vocabulary development, this project is can further refine measures that have shown early promise in identifying markers of language delay, and identify whether or not these skills are casually related. We assess whether a relationship exists between these factors, and if in combination they may improve identification of children who will remain delayed in language skills at age 3. The specific objectives of this proposal are to (1) evaluate the relationship between semantic domain knowledge and real-time recognition of words from 18-30 months, (2) explore whether and how word learning, semantic development, and processing skills are related and (3) assess whether language outcomes at 36 months relate to earlier measures acquired between 18-30 months. This project will highlight the importance of the ability to efficiently recognize, interpret and learn relationships between word meanings as a marker of later language delay, and will provide insights into the value of teaching semantic relationships between words as a potential approach for early intervention.