Online language processing and semantic development in late-talking infants

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目的广泛目标是推进我们对早期语义发展和语言处理技能如何有助于早期婴儿后期语言延迟和障碍风险的理论理解。我们将检查具有广泛语言能力的婴儿，包括那些晚说话的婴儿。晚说话婴儿是年龄在18-24个月之间的一组儿童，他们在早期语言测量中低于第20百分位数。虽然许多晚说话的孩子确实赶上了同龄人，并表现出典型的语言发育，但一个子集将继续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术和社会后果。患有SLI的儿童通常在学龄前才被发现，尽管父母经常报告从婴儿期开始就担心语言发育。迫切需要制定措施，不仅可以确定哪些儿童在婴儿期和幼儿期语言障碍的风险最大，而且还需要了解这些语言延迟的机制。这些进步，在串联，有可能产生关键的见解如何早期干预早期语言 拖延可能会改善这些儿童的状况。通过调查两个有希望的后期语言延迟标记（1）早期词汇识别的流利性和准确性，以及（2）词汇发展的早期语义结构，该项目可以进一步完善在识别语言延迟标记方面显示出早期承诺的措施，并确定这些技能是否是偶然相关的。我们评估这些因素之间是否存在关系，如果结合起来，它们可能会提高识别儿童谁将在3岁时仍然延迟语言技能。该提案的具体目标是（1）评估语义领域知识与18-30个月的单词实时识别之间的关系，（2）探索单词学习，语义发展和处理技能是否以及如何相关，以及（3）评估36个月的语言结果是否与18-30个月之间获得的早期测量有关。该项目将突出有效识别，解释和学习单词含义之间的关系作为后期语言延迟的标志的能力的重要性，并将提供深入了解单词之间的语义关系作为早期干预的潜在方法的教学价值。

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.