Mentor/s
Faculty mentor: Name: Elizabeth Schoen Simmons, Ph.D. Email: simmonse3@sacredheart.edu Department: Communication Disorders
Participation Type
Poster
Abstract
On way in which typically developing infants and toddlers acquire a vocabulary is through cross-situational word learning (Yu & Smith, 2007). This describes the tracking of co-occurrences between spoken words and their referents across many learning opportunities. Late talkers (LTs) are toddlers with small expressive vocabularies in absence of neurodevelopmental disorders or sensory impairments (Collison et al., 2016). There is a dearth of literature on how LTs acquire a vocabulary and if they employ cross-situational word learning to do so. This study evaluated cross-situational word learning in a sample of typically developing (TD; n=16) toddlers and late talkers (LTs; n=7). Participants completed a cross-situational word learning training where they were taught six novel word-object pairs via a computer game. Following training, they were tested on the word-object pairs. Participants saw two of the objects (i.e., boasa [distractor], kati [target]) and heard a direction to look at one of the objects (Look at the kati! [target]). The participants’ eye gaze was recorded during the experiment. Results of this study revealed that the TD group learned the word-object pairs as evidenced by spending significantly more time looking at the labelled, target objects during the test phase compared to the distractor objects. This pattern was not observed in the LTs. The LTs group spent more time looking at the distractor objects during the test phase. These findings suggest that LTs may be less efficient at using cross-situational input to learn words.
College and Major available
College of Health Professions, Communication Disorders
Location
Digital Commons & West Campus West Building
Start Day/Time
4-29-2022 1:00 PM
End Day/Time
4-29-2022 4:00 PM
Prize Categories
Most Scholarly Impact or Potential
Cross-situational Word Learning in Toddlers with Varying Language Proficiency
Digital Commons & West Campus West Building
On way in which typically developing infants and toddlers acquire a vocabulary is through cross-situational word learning (Yu & Smith, 2007). This describes the tracking of co-occurrences between spoken words and their referents across many learning opportunities. Late talkers (LTs) are toddlers with small expressive vocabularies in absence of neurodevelopmental disorders or sensory impairments (Collison et al., 2016). There is a dearth of literature on how LTs acquire a vocabulary and if they employ cross-situational word learning to do so. This study evaluated cross-situational word learning in a sample of typically developing (TD; n=16) toddlers and late talkers (LTs; n=7). Participants completed a cross-situational word learning training where they were taught six novel word-object pairs via a computer game. Following training, they were tested on the word-object pairs. Participants saw two of the objects (i.e., boasa [distractor], kati [target]) and heard a direction to look at one of the objects (Look at the kati! [target]). The participants’ eye gaze was recorded during the experiment. Results of this study revealed that the TD group learned the word-object pairs as evidenced by spending significantly more time looking at the labelled, target objects during the test phase compared to the distractor objects. This pattern was not observed in the LTs. The LTs group spent more time looking at the distractor objects during the test phase. These findings suggest that LTs may be less efficient at using cross-situational input to learn words.
Students' Information
Olivia Cayward. Major: Communication Disorders. Graduation Year: 2023
Julia Linhares. Major: Communication Disorders. Honors student. Graduation Year: 2023
Allison Roberge. Major: Communication Disorders. Graduation Year: 2024