Infant-Directed Speech and Language Development in Infants with Hearing Loss

 描述(由申请人提供)：儿童听力损失(PHL)是口语发展和教育结果不佳的风险因素。积极的语言效果可能在很大程度上取决于语言环境。由于患有PHL的婴儿有语言不良的风险，因此输入的质量对他们来说可能比听力正常的婴儿(NH)更重要。然而，目前人们对听力损失婴儿的语言输入的性质以及它如何影响他们的语言发展知之甚少。 这项研究的总体目标是确定真实世界的语言输入如何影响听力损失婴儿的语言发展，并确定可能促进这些婴儿语言发展的婴儿定向言语(IDS)的潜在因素。在目标1中，我们将使用Lena录音设备测量和比较针对PHL和NH同龄人的真实世界语音的声学和语言语用特性。在目标2中，我们将调查现实世界入侵检测系统的特性和结果测量之间的关系，并确定婴儿的处理效率在调节这些关系中的作用。在目标3中，我们将确定与NH同龄人相比，入侵检测对PHL婴儿新词学习的影响。印第安纳大学医学院的BabyTalk研究实验室采用了已建立的多模式优先注视范式来研究NH婴儿和PHL婴儿的新词学习。在这个过程中，婴儿坐在音箱里，并在电视监视器上看到听觉和视觉信号。婴儿对目标和非目标视觉物体对新词的反应时间-无论是在婴儿指导的语域还是成人指导的语域-将被衡量为他们的单词学习能力的指标。最后，在目标4中，我们将确定在自然和非自然条件下，ID的哪些声学特征有助于NH婴儿的新词学习 频谱退化的语音。使用与目标3相同的新词学习范式，这一具体目标将是第一个调查特定声学特性对NH婴儿新词学习的促进作用的目标，并将提供关于频谱退化的语音如何影响IDs促进效应的有价值的信息。这一研究项目的发现将具有重要的理论意义，因为它们将揭示PHL和谱性退化输入如何与入侵检测和语言发展之间的直接和间接关系相互作用。这一发现也将为临床医生和听力损失婴儿的父母提供有价值的信息，为他们提供最佳的语言环境，最大限度地促进语言发展。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Pediatric hearing loss (PHL) is a risk factor for poor spoken language development and educational outcomes. Positive language outcomes may depend in large part on the linguistic environment. Because infants with PHL are at risk for poor language outcomes, the quality of the input may be even more important for them than it is for infants with normal hearing (NH). However, there is currently very little known about the nature of the linguistic input to infants with hearing loss and how it affects their language development. The overall objective of this research project is to determine how real-world language input affects language development in infants with hearing loss and to determine the underlying factors of infant-directed speech (IDS) that might facilitate language development in these infants. In Aim 1, we will measure and compare the acoustic and linguistic- pragmatic properties of real-world speech directed to infants with PHL and NH peers using the LENA recording device. In Aim 2, we will investigate relationships between properties of real-world IDS and outcome measures and determine the role of infants' processing efficiency on mediating those relationships. In Aim 3, we will determine the effects of IDS on novel word learning in infants with PHL compared to NH peers. The Babytalk Research Laboratory at Indiana University School of Medicine employs an established intermodal preferential looking paradigm for studying novel word learning in both NH infants and infants with PHL. In this procedure, infants are seated in a sound booth and are presented with auditory and visual signals on a TV monitor. Infants' looking times to the target and nontarget visual objects in response to the novel words - spoken in either infant-directed or adult-directed speech registers - will be measured as an index of their word learning ability. Finally, in Aim 4, we will determine which acoustic characteristics of IDS facilitate novel word learning in NH infants under conditions of natural and spectrally degraded speech. Using the same novel-word-learning paradigm as in Aim 3, this specific aim will be the first to investigate the facilitative effects of specific acoustic propertes of IDS on novel word learning in NH infants and will provide valuable information regarding how spectrally degraded speech may affect the facilitative affects of IDS. The findings from this research project will have important theoretical implications because they will shed light on how PHL and spectrally degraded input interacts with the direct and indirect relationships between IDS and language development. The findings will also provide valuable information to clinicians and parents of infants with hearing loss for providing an optimal linguistic environment that will best promote language development.