Parental perspectives on the impact of screen time on the language skills of typically developing Indian children.

PURPOSE: The overuse of screen-based devices results in developmental problems in children. Parents are an integral part of the children's language development. The present study explores the parental perspectives on the impact of screen time on the language skills of typically developing school-going children using a developed questionnaire. METHODS: 192 parents of typically developing children between 6 and 10 years of age participated in the study. Phase 1 of the study included the development of a questionnaire targeting the impact of screen devices on language development. The questionnaire was converted into an online survey and was circulated among the parents in Phase 2. Descriptive statistics were performed on the retrieved data and a chi-square test was done to determine the association between the use of screen devices across all language parameters. RESULTS: Parents reported television and smartphones to be the most used type of device, with a large proportion of children using screen-based devices for 1-2 hours per day. Most parents reported children prefer watching screens mainly for entertainment purposes, occasionally under supervision, without depending on them as potential rewards. The impact of screen-based devices on language skills has been discussed under the semantics, syntax, and pragmatic aspects of language. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study will help identify the existing trends in the usage of screen-based devices by children, thereby identifying potential contributing factors towards language delays. This information will also benefit in parental counselling during the interventional planning of children with language delays.

Learning the Meanings of Function Words From Grounded Language Using a Visual Question Answering Model.

Interpreting a seemingly simple function word like "or," "behind," or "more" can require logical, numerical, and relational reasoning. How are such words learned by children? Prior acquisition theories have often relied on positing a foundation of innate knowledge. Yet recent neural-network-based visual question answering models apparently can learn to use function words as part of answering questions about complex visual scenes. In this paper, we study what these models learn about function words, in the hope of better understanding how the meanings of these words can be learned by both models and children. We show that recurrent models trained on visually grounded language learn gradient semantics for function words requiring spatial and numerical reasoning. Furthermore, we find that these models can learn the meanings of logical connectives and and or without any prior knowledge of logical reasoning as well as early evidence that they are sensitive to alternative expressions when interpreting language. Finally, we show that word learning difficulty is dependent on the frequency of models' input. Our findings offer proof-of-concept evidence that it is possible to learn the nuanced interpretations of function words in a visually grounded context by using non-symbolic general statistical learning algorithms, without any prior knowledge of linguistic meaning.

The influence of tight tongue-ties and tongue-tie clips on speech development.

Ankyloglossia or tongue-tie is a condition where the anatomical variation of the sublingual frenulum can limit normal tongue function. In Denmark, as in other countries, an increase in the number of children treated for ankyloglossia has been described over the past years. Whether or not ankyloglossia and its release affect the speech has also been increasingly discussed on Danish television and social media. In this review, the possible connection between ankyloglossia, its surgical treatment, and speech development in children is discussed.

Exploring the relationship between auditory late latency response and language age in children using cochlear implant.

AIM & OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to compare P1 latency and P1-N1 amplitude with receptive and expressive language ages in children using cochlear implant (CI) in one ear and a hearing aid (HA) in non-implanted ear. METHODS: The study included 30 children, consisting of 18 males and 12 females, aged between 48 and 96 months. The age at which the children received CI ranged from 42 to 69 months. A within-subject research design was utilized and participants were selected through purposive sampling. Auditory late latency responses (ALLR) were assessed using the Intelligent hearing system to measure P1 latency and P1-N1 amplitude. The assessment checklist for speech-language skills (ACSLS) was employed to evaluate receptive and expressive language age. Both assessments were conducted after cochlear implantation. RESULTS: A total of 30 children participated in the study, with a mean implant age of 20.03 months (SD: 8.14 months). The mean P1 latency and P1-N1 amplitude was 129.50 ms (SD: 15.05 ms) and 6.93 µV (SD: 2.24 µV) respectively. Correlation analysis revealed no significant association between ALLR measures and receptive or expressive language ages. However, there was significant negative correlation between the P1 latency and implant age (Spearman's rho = -0.371, p = 0.043). CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that P1 latency which is an indicative of auditory maturation, may not be a reliable marker for predicting language outcomes. It can be concluded that language development is likely to be influenced by other factors beyond auditory maturation alone.

Lateralization of dorsal fiber tract targeting Broca's area concurs with language skills during development.

Language is bounded to the left hemisphere in the adult brain and the functional lateralization can already be observed early during development. Here we investigate whether this is paralleled by a lateralization of the white matter structural language network. We analyze the strength and microstructural properties of language-related fiber tracts connecting temporal and frontal cortices with a separation of two dorsal tracts, one targeting the posterior Broca's area (BA44) and one targeting the precentral gyrus (BA6). In a large sample of young children (3-6 years), we demonstrate that, in contrast to the BA6-targeting tract, the microstructural asymmetry of the BA44-targeting fiber tract significantly correlates locally with different aspects of development. While the asymmetry in its anterior segment reflects age, the asymmetry in its posterior segment is associated with the children's language skills. These findings demonstrate a fine-grained structure-to-function mapping in the lateralized network and go beyond our current view of language-related human brain maturation.

Evaluation of apparently healthy Egyptian infants and toddlers on the bayley-III scales according to age and sex.

BACKGROUND: Child development is shaped throughout the first years of life through the interaction of genetics and the environment. Bayley-III is valuably used to determine early developmental delay (DD). The aim of this study was to detect the differences in performance of a sample of apparently healthy Egyptian infants and toddlers on the Bayley-III scales in relation to their age and gender. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study. Bayley scales were applied to 270 of the 300 recruited children following the inclusion criteria; to avoid potential risk factors affecting development. Assessment included cognitive, language and motor skills. Engaged children aged 18-42 months were divided into 4 age groups with six-month intervals. RESULTS: Approximately 78.4%, 76.2%, and 72% of the participants had average and above average scores in the cognitive, motor, and language domains, respectively. The language domain was characteristically impacted. The oldest age group (36-42 months) scored the highest means composite scores, while the 2nd group aged 24 - <30 months, scored the lowest means in the three evaluated domains. In general, girls had non-significantly higher composite scores than boys, with a small effect size (d = 0.2-0.4). In the language domain, girls aged 30 to < 36 months scored significantly higher composite scores than boys (p < 0.05), with a medium effect size (d = 0.73). CONCLUSION: The study indicates that the performance of apparently healthy Egyptian children on the Bayley III evaluation differs in relation to age and sex. The most vulnerable age group at potential risk of DD was children aged 24-30 months. Efforts must be directed to investigate the nutritional, physical, psychological and safety needs of this group. Attention must be paid to early childhood intervention programs that stimulate development, especially language development, and they must be tailored on the basis of age and gender. Gender-specific norms may be needed in the evaluation of language development.

Predictability and Variation in Language Are Differentially Affected by Learning and Production.

General principles of human cognition can help to explain why languages are more likely to have certain characteristics than others: structures that are difficult to process or produce will tend to be lost over time. One aspect of cognition that is implicated in language use is working memory-the component of short-term memory used for temporary storage and manipulation of information. In this study, we consider the relationship between working memory and regularization of linguistic variation. Regularization is a well-documented process whereby languages become less variable (on some dimension) over time. This process has been argued to be driven by the behavior of individual language users, but the specific mechanism is not agreed upon. Here, we use an artificial language learning experiment to investigate whether limitations in working memory during either language learning or language production drive regularization behavior. We find that taxing working memory during production results in the loss of all types of variation, but the process by which random variation becomes more predictable is better explained by learning biases. A computational model offers a potential explanation for the production effect using a simple self-priming mechanism.

A Comprehensive Examination of Prediction-Based Error as a Mechanism for Syntactic Development: Evidence From Syntactic Priming.

Prediction-based accounts of language acquisition have the potential to explain several different effects in child language acquisition and adult language processing. However, evidence regarding the developmental predictions of such accounts is mixed. Here, we consider several predictions of these accounts in two large-scale developmental studies of syntactic priming of the English dative alternation. Study 1 was a cross-sectional study (N = 140) of children aged 3-9 years, in which we found strong evidence of abstract priming and the lexical boost, but little evidence that either effect was moderated by age. We found weak evidence for a prime surprisal effect; however, exploratory analyses revealed a protracted developmental trajectory for verb-structure biases, providing an explanation as for why prime surprisal effects are more elusive in developmental populations. In a longitudinal study (N = 102) of children in tightly controlled age bands at 42, 48, and 54 months, we found priming effects emerged on trials with verb overlap early but did not observe clear evidence of priming on trials without verb overlap until 54 months. There was no evidence of a prime surprisal effect at any time point and none of the effects were moderated by age. The results relating to the emergence of the abstract priming and lexical boost effects are consistent with prediction-based models, while the absence of age-related effects appears to reflect the structure-specific challenges the dative presents to English-acquiring children. Overall, our complex pattern of findings demonstrates the value of developmental data sets in testing psycholinguistic theory.

[Analysis of language and influencing factors of children with speech disorder in Beijing].

Objective: To investigate the features and influencing factors of language in children with various types of speech disorders. Methods: A case-control study was carried out, 262 children with speech disorder had been diagnosed at the language-speech clinic of the Center of Children's Healthcare, Children's Hospital, Capital Institute of Pediatrics from January 2021 to November 2023, the children with speech sound disorder as the speech sound disorder group, the children with developmental stuttering as the stuttering group. There were 100 typically-developed children who underwent physical checkups at the Center of Healthcare during the same period as the healthy group. All children experienced a standardized evaluation of language with diagnostic receptive and expressive assessment of mandarin-comprehensive(DREAM-C) and questionnaire, One-way ANOVA and LSD test were conducted to compare the differences in overall language, receptive language, expressive language, semantics, and syntax scores among 3 groups of children. According to the results of DREAM-C, the children with speech disorder were divided into language normal group and language delay group. Chi-square test and multivariate Logistic regression were implemented to analyze the association between the linguistic development of children with speech disorder and potential influential factors. Results: There were 145 children in the speech sound disorder group, including 110 males and 35 females respectively, with an age of (5.9±1.0) years; 117 children in the stuttering group, including 91 males and 26 females, with an age of (5.8±1.0) years; 100 children in the healthy group, including 75 males and 25 females, with an age of (5.7±1.2) years. The variations in overall language, expressive language, and syntax scores among 3 groups of children were statistically significant (92±18 vs.96±11 vs. 98±11, 81±18 vs. 84±14 vs. 88±13, 87±16 vs. 89±11 vs. 91±10, F=5.46, 4.69, 3.68, all P<0.05). Pairwise comparison revealed that the speech sound disorder group had lower scores in overall language, expressive language, and syntactic compared to the healthy group, and the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.01) and the overall language score was lower than that of children with stuttering (P<0.05). In terms of overall language and expressive language, there was a statistically significant difference in the incidence of language delay among the three groups of children (15.9% (23/145) vs. 20.5% (24/117) vs. 7.0% (7/100), 46.2% (67/145) vs. 39.3% (46/117) vs. 26.0% (26/100); χ2=7.93, 10.28; both P<0.05). In terms of overall language, the stuttering group took up the highest proportion. In terms of expressive language, the speech sound disorder group accounted for the highest amount. The incidence of language delay in children with speech disorder was 44.3% (116/262). Non-parent-child reading, daily screen time ≥1 hour and screen exposure before 1.5 years of age are risk factors for the development of language in children with speech disorder (OR=1.87, 2.18, 2.01; 95%CI 1.07-3.27, 1.23-3.86, 1.17-3.45; all P<0.01). Negative family history are protective factors for the progress of language ability (OR=0.37, 95%CI 0.17-0.81, P<0.05). Conclusions: Children with speech disorder tend to have easy access to language delay, especially in expressive language and syntax. The occurrence of language delay in children with speech disorder is tightly connected with factors such as the family medical history, parent-child reading, screen time, etc. Attention should be paid to the development of language in children who suffer from speech disorder.

Maternal occupational noise exposure during pregnancy and children's early language acquisition.

INTRODUCTION: Noise exposure during pregnancy may affect a child's auditory system, which may disturb fetal learning and language development. We examined the impact of occupational noise exposure during pregnancy on children's language acquisition at the age of one. METHODS: A cohort study was conducted among women working in the food industry, as kindergarten teachers, musicians, dental nurses, or pharmacists who had a child aged <1 year. The analyses covered 408 mother-child pairs. Language acquisition was measured using the Infant-Toddler Checklist. An occupational hygienist assessed noise exposure individually as no (N = 180), low (70-78 dB; N = 108) or moderate/high exposure (>79 dB; N = 120). RESULTS: Among the boys, the adjusted mean differences in language acquisition scores were -0.4 (95% CI -2.5, 1.8) for low, and -0.7 (95% CI -2.9, 1.4) for moderate/high exposure compared to no exposure. Among the girls the respective scores were +0.1 (95% CI -2.2, 2.5) and -0.1 (95% CI -2.3, 2.2). Among the children of kindergarten teachers, who were mainly exposed to human noise, low or moderate exposure was associated with lower language acquisition scores. The adjusted mean differences were -3.8 (95% CI -7.2, -0.4) for low and -4.9 (95% CI -8.6, -1.2) for moderate exposure. CONCLUSIONS: In general, we did not detect an association between maternal noise exposure and children's language acquisition among one-year-old children. However, the children of kindergarten teachers exposed to human noise had lower language acquisition scores than the children of the non-exposed participants. These suggestive findings merit further investigation by level and type of exposure.

Limited but specific engagement of the mature language network during linguistic statistical learning.

Statistical learning (SL) is the ability to detect and learn regularities from input and is foundational to language acquisition. Despite the dominant role of SL as a theoretical construct for language development, there is a lack of direct evidence supporting the shared neural substrates underlying language processing and SL. It is also not clear whether the similarities, if any, are related to linguistic processing, or statistical regularities in general. The current study tests whether the brain regions involved in natural language processing are similarly recruited during auditory, linguistic SL. Twenty-two adults performed an auditory linguistic SL task, an auditory nonlinguistic SL task, and a passive story listening task as their neural activation was monitored. Within the language network, the left posterior temporal gyrus showed sensitivity to embedded speech regularities during auditory, linguistic SL, but not auditory, nonlinguistic SL. Using a multivoxel pattern similarity analysis, we uncovered similarities between the neural representation of auditory, linguistic SL, and language processing within the left posterior temporal gyrus. No other brain regions showed similarities between linguistic SL and language comprehension, suggesting that a shared neurocomputational process for auditory SL and natural language processing within the left posterior temporal gyrus is specific to linguistic stimuli.

Cortical specialization associated with native speech category acquisition in early infancy.

This study investigates neural processes in infant speech processing, with a focus on left frontal brain regions and hemispheric lateralization in Mandarin-speaking infants' acquisition of native tonal categories. We tested 2- to 6-month-old Mandarin learners to explore age-related improvements in tone discrimination, the role of inferior frontal regions in abstract speech category representation, and left hemisphere lateralization during tone processing. Using a block design, we presented four Mandarin tones via [ta] and measured oxygenated hemoglobin concentration with functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Results showed age-related improvements in tone discrimination, greater involvement of frontal regions in older infants indicating abstract tonal representation development and increased bilateral activation mirroring native adult Mandarin speakers. These findings contribute to our broader understanding of the relationship between native speech acquisition and infant brain development during the critical period of early language learning.

Mobile device screen time is associated with poorer language development among toddlers: results from a large-scale survey.

BACKGROUND: Despite young children's widespread use of mobile devices, little research exists on this use and its association with children's language development. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between mobile device screen time and language comprehension and expressive language skills. An additional aim was to examine whether three factors related to the domestic learning environment modify the associations. METHODS: The study uses data from the Danish large-scale survey TRACES among two- and three-year-old children (n = 31,125). Mobile device screen time was measured as time spent on mobile devices on a normal day. Measurement of language comprehension and expressive language skills was based on subscales from the Five to Fifteen Toddlers questionnaire. Multivariable linear regression was used to examine the association between child mobile device screen time and language development and logistic regression to examine the risk of experiencing significant language difficulties. Joint exposure analyses were used to examine the association between child mobile device screen time and language development difficulties in combination with three other factors related to the domestic learning environment: parental education, reading to the child and child TV/PC screen time. RESULTS: High mobile device screen time of one hour or more per day was significantly associated with poorer language development scores and higher odds for both language comprehension difficulties (1-2 h: AOR = 1.30; ≥ 2 h: AOR = 1.42) and expressive language skills difficulties (1-2 h: AOR = 1.19; ≥ 2 h: AOR = 1.46). The results suggest that reading frequently to the child partly buffers the negative effect of high mobile device screen time on language comprehension difficulties but not on expressive language skills difficulties. No modifying effect of parental education and time spent by the child on TV/PC was found. CONCLUSIONS: Mobile device screen time of one hour or more per day is associated with poorer language development among toddlers. Reading frequently to the child may have a buffering effect on language comprehension difficulties but not on expressive language skills difficulties.

[The EEG N400 component as a marker of language acquisition and processing in cochlear implant users]. / Die N400-Komponente im EEG als Marker für Spracherwerb und Wortverarbeitung nach CI-Versorgung.

Language processing can be measured objectively using late components in the evoked brain potential. The most established component in this area of research is the N400 component, a negativity that peaks at about 400 ms after stimulus onset with a centro-parietal maximum. It reflects semantic processing. Its presence, as well as its temporal and quantitative expression, allows to conclude about the quality of processing. It is therefore suitable for measuring speech comprehension in special populations, such as cochlear implant (CI) users. The following is an overview of the use of the N400 component as a tool for studying language processes in CI users. We present studies with adult CI users, where the N400 reflects the quality of speech comprehension with the new hearing device and we present studies with children where the emergence of the N400 component reflects the acquisition of their very first vocabulary.

The Predictability of Naturalistic Evaluation of All-Day Recordings for Speech and Language Development.

OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to investigate the predictive potential of language environment and vocal development status measures obtained through integrated analysis of Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) recordings during the prelinguistic stage for subsequent speech and language development in Korean-acquiring children. Specifically, this study explored whether measures from both LENA-automated analysis and human coding at 6-8 months and 12-14 months of age predict vocabulary and phonological development at 18-20 months. METHOD: One-day home recordings from 20 children were collected using a LENA recorder at 6-8 months, 12-14 months, and 18-20 months. Both LENA-automated measures and measures from human coding were obtained from recordings at 6-8 months and 12-14 months. The number of different words, consonant inventory, and utterance structure inventory were identified from recordings of 18-20 months. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were performed to investigate whether measures related to early language environment and child vocalization at 6-8 months and 12-14 months were predictive of vocabulary and phonological measures at 18-20 months. RESULTS: The results showed that the two main LENA-automated measures, conversational turn count (CTC) and child vocalization count, were positively correlated with all vocabulary and phonological measures at 18-20 months. Multiple regression analysis revealed that CTC during the prelinguistic stages was the most significant predictor of a number of different words, consonant inventory, and utterance structure inventory at 18-20 months. Also, adult word count in LENA-automated measures, child-directed speech ratio, and canonical babbling ratio measured by human coding significantly predicted some vocabulary and phonological measures at 18-20 months. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the multifaceted nature of language acquisition and collectively emphasizes the value of considering both quantitative and qualitative aspects of language input to understand early language development in children.

Associations between EEG power and coherence with cognition and early precursors of speech and language development across the first months of life.

The neural processes underpinning cognition and language development in infancy are of great interest. We investigated EEG power and coherence in infancy, as a reflection of underlying cortical function of single brain region and cross-region connectivity, and their relations to cognition and early precursors of speech and language development. EEG recordings were longitudinally collected from 21 infants with typical development between approximately 1 and 7 months. We investigated relative band power at 3-6Hz and 6-9Hz and EEG coherence of these frequency ranges at 25 electrode pairs that cover key brain regions. A correlation analysis was performed to assess the relationship between EEG measurements across frequency bands and brain regions and raw Bayley cognitive and language developmental scores. In the first months of life, relative band power is not correlated with cognitive and language scales. However, 3-6Hz coherence is negatively correlated with receptive language scores between frontoparietal regions, and 6-9Hz coherence is negatively correlated with expressive language scores between frontoparietal regions. The results from this preliminary study contribute to the existing literature on the relationship between electrophysiological development, cognition, and early speech precursors in this age group. Future work should create norm references of early development in these domains that can be compared with infants at risk for neurodevelopmental disabilities.

Babbling opens the sensory phase for imitative vocal learning.

Zebra finches, a species of songbirds, learn to sing by creating an auditory template through the memorization of model songs (sensory learning phase) and subsequently translating these perceptual memories into motor skills (sensorimotor learning phase). It has been traditionally believed that babbling in juvenile birds initiates the sensorimotor phase while the sensory phase of song learning precedes the onset of babbling. However, our findings challenge this notion by demonstrating that testosterone-induced premature babbling actually triggers the onset of the sensory learning phase instead. We reveal that juvenile birds must engage in babbling and self-listening to acquire the tutor song as the template. Notably, the sensory learning of the template in songbirds requires motor vocal activity, reflecting the observation that prelinguistic babbling in humans plays a crucial role in auditory learning for language acquisition.

Infants' brain responses to social interaction predict future language growth.

In face-to-face interactions with infants, human adults exhibit a species-specific communicative signal. Adults present a distinctive "social ensemble": they use infant-directed speech (parentese), respond contingently to infants' actions and vocalizations, and react positively through mutual eye-gaze and smiling. Studies suggest that this social ensemble is essential for initial language learning. Our hypothesis is that the social ensemble attracts attentional systems to speech and that sensorimotor systems prepare infants to respond vocally, both of which advance language learning. Using infant magnetoencephalography (MEG), we measure 5-month-old infants' neural responses during live verbal face-to-face (F2F) interaction with an adult (social condition) and during a control (nonsocial condition) in which the adult turns away from the infant to speak to another person. Using a longitudinal design, we tested whether infants' brain responses to these conditions at 5 months of age predicted their language growth at five future time points. Brain areas involved in attention (right hemisphere inferior frontal, right hemisphere superior temporal, and right hemisphere inferior parietal) show significantly higher theta activity in the social versus nonsocial condition. Critical to theory, we found that infants' neural activity in response to F2F interaction in attentional and sensorimotor regions significantly predicted future language development into the third year of life, more than 2 years after the initial measurements. We develop a view of early language acquisition that underscores the centrality of the social ensemble, and we offer new insight into the neurobiological components that link infants' language learning to their early brain functioning during social interaction.