Search

Gesture and speech are tightly linked and form a single system in typical development. In this review, we ask whether and how the role of gesture and relations between speech and gesture vary in atypical development by focusing on two groups of children: those with peri‐ or prenatal unilateral brain injury (children with BI) and preterm born (PT) children. We describe the gestures of children with BI and PT children and the relations between gesture and speech, as well as highlight various cognitive and motor antecedents of the speech‐gesture link observed in these populations. We then examine possible factors contributing to the variability in gesture production of these atypically developing children. Last, we discuss the potential role of seeing others’ gestures, particularly those of parents, in mediating the predictive relationships between early gestures and upcoming changes in speech. We end the review by charting new areas for future research that will help us better understand the robust roles of gestures for typical and atypically‐developing child populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal perspectives allow us to place ourselves and temporal events on a timeline, making it easier to conceptualize time. This study investigates how we take different temporal perspectives in our temporal gestures. We asked participants (n = 36) to retell temporal scenarios written in the Moving‐Ego, Moving‐Time, and Time‐Reference‐Point perspectives in spontaneous and encouraged gesture conditions. Participants took temporal perspectives mostly in similar ways regardless of the gesture condition. Perspective comparisons showed that temporal gestures of our participants resonated better with the Ego‐ (i.e., Moving‐Ego and Moving‐Time) versus Time‐Reference‐Point distinction instead of the classical Moving‐Ego versus Moving‐Time contrast. Specifically, participants mostly produced more Moving‐Ego and Time‐Reference‐Point gestures for the corresponding scenarios and speech; however, the Moving‐Time perspective was not adopted more than the others in any condition. Similarly, the Moving‐Time gestures did not favor an axis over the others, whereas Moving‐Ego gestures were mostly sagittal and Time‐Reference‐Point gestures were mostly lateral. These findings suggest that we incorporate temporal perspectives into our temporal gestures to a considerable extent; however, the classical Moving‐Ego and Moving‐Time classification may not hold for temporal gestures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Age‐related changes are observed in the speech and gestures of neurotypical individuals. Older adults are more disfluent in speech and use fewer representational gestures (e.g., holding two hands close to each other to mean small), compared to younger adults. Using gestures, especially representational gestures, is common in difficult tasks to aid the conceptualization process and to facilitate lexical access. This study investigates how aging can affect gesture production and the co‐occurrence between gesture and speech disfluency. We elicited speech and gesture samples from younger and older adults (N = 60) by using a painting description task that provided concrete and abstract contexts. Results indicated that albeit the two age groups revealed comparable overall speech disfluency and gesture rates, they differed in terms of how their disfluencies and gestures were distributed across specific categories. Moreover, the proportion of speech disfluencies that occur with a gesture was significantly higher for younger than older adults. However, the two age groups were comparable in terms of the proportion of gestures that were accompanied by a speech disfluency. These findings suggest that younger adults' language production system might be better at benefiting from other modalities, that is, gesture, to resolve temporary problems in speech planning. However, from a gesture perspective, it might be difficult to differentiate between gestures' self‐oriented and communicative functions and understand their role in speech facilitation. Focusing on specific cases where speech disfluency and gestures co‐occur and considering individual differences might bring insight into multimodal communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross‐category hues are differentiated easier than otherwise equidistant hues that belong to the same linguistic category. This effect is typically manifested through both accuracy and response time gains in tasks with a memory component, whereas only response times are affected when there is no memory component. This raises the question of whether there is a common generative process underlying the differential behavioral manifestations of category advantage in color perception. For instance, within the framework of noisy evidence accumulation models, changes in accuracy can be readily attributed to an increase in the efficacy of perceptual evidence integration (after controlling for threshold setting), whereas changes in response time can also be attributed to shorter nondecisional delays (e.g., due to facilitated signal detection). To address the latent decision processes underlying category advantage across different behavioral demands, we introduce a decision‐theoretic perspective (i.e., diffusion decision model) to categorical color perception in three complementary experiments. In Experiment 1, we collected data from a binary color naming task (1) to determine the green–blue boundary in our sample and (2) to trace how parameter estimates of interest in the model output change as a function of color typicality. In Experiments 2 and 3, we used same‐different task paradigms (with and without a memory component, respectively) and traced the category advantage in color discrimination in two parameters of the diffusion decision model: nondecision time and drift rate. An increase in drift rate predominantly characterized the category advantage in both tasks. Our results show that improved efficiency in perceptual evidence integration is a common driving force behind different manifestations of category advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) is one of the most widely used complex EF task for various populations. However, it seems questionable to employ the task for preschool‐aged children due to their lack of numerical efficiency while sorting cards according to the number dimension. The present study aimed to examine the association of numeracy skills with different EF‐related abilities as measured by the WCST. For the assessment of numeracy skills, we used the Early Numeracy Test (ENT). One hundred and fourteen Turkish children between the ages of 5 and 8 were administered the WCST and ENT in a counterbalanced order. Results revealed a significant correlation only between the three ENT scores and the concept formation factor of the WCST, indicating a significant relationship between the WCST performance and numeracy skills in terms of concept formation. This finding highlights the specific relation between numeracy skills and subcomponents of the WCST and points to potential interfering variables that should be taken into account while evaluating the scores of the sorting tasks for children between the ages of 5 and 8. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do children evaluate complex causal events? This study investigates preschoolers' representation of force dynamics in causal scenes, asking whether (a) children understand how single and dual forces impact an object's movement and (b) this understanding varies across cause types (Cause, Enable, Prevent). Three-and-a half- to 5.5-year-olds ( n = 60) played a board game in which they were asked to predict the endpoint of a ball being acted upon by one or two forces. Children mostly understood the interactions of forces underlying each type of cause; only 5.5-year-olds could integrate two contradictory forces. Children perceive force interactions underlying causal events, but some concepts might not be fully understood until later in childhood. This study provides a new way of thinking about causal relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To learn motion verbs, infants must be sensitive to the specific event features lexicalized in their language. One event feature important for the acquisition of English motion verbs is the manner of motion. This article examines when and how infants detect manners of motion across variations in the figure's path. Experiment 1 shows that 13- to 15-month-olds ( N = 30) can detect an invariant manner of motion when the figure's path changes. Experiment 2 reveals that reducing the complexity of the events, by dampening the figure's path, helps 10- to 12-month-olds ( N = 19) detect the invariant manner. These findings suggest that: (a) infants notice event features lexicalized in English motion verbs, and (b) attention to manner can be promoted by reducing event complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sound symbols, such as "woof woof" for a dog's barking, imitate the physical properties of their referents. Turkish is a sound symbolically rich language that allows flexible use of such words in different linguistic forms. The current study examined Turkish‐speaking parents' use of sound symbolic words to their 14‐ and 20‐month‐olds and the concurrent and longitudinal relations between parents' sound symbolic input and infants' vocabulary knowledge. Thirty‐four (n = 34) infants were observed at Time‐1 (Mage = 14.23 months, SD = 1.11) and Time‐2 (Mage = 20.30 months, SD = 1.24) during free play sessions with their parents to examine parental input. Infants' vocabulary knowledge was assessed by a parental report. Both the quantity and quality of parental sound symbolic input changed between 14 and 20 months of age. Furthermore, infants' earlier vocabulary knowledge at 14 months negatively predicted parents' later sound symbolic input at 20 months. Last, parents' sound symbolic input was positively and concurrently associated with 14‐month‐olds' vocabulary knowledge but was negatively and concurrently associated with 20‐month‐olds' vocabulary levels. These findings suggest an early interaction between infants' exposure to sound symbolic input and their vocabulary development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Coding has been added to school curricula in several countries, being one of the necessary competencies of the 21st century. Although it has also been suggested to foster the development of several cognitive skills such as computational thinking and problem‐solving, studies on the effects of coding are very limited, provide mixed results, and lack causal evidence. Aim: This study aims to evaluate the impact of a learn‐to‐code programme on three cognitive skills in children: computational thinking, fluid intelligence, and spatial orientation, using a randomized trial. Sample: One hundred seventy‐four (n = 81 girls) 4th‐grade children participated in the study. Methods: Children were randomly assigned to one of the three 10‐week learning programmes: learn‐to‐code (treatment of interest), mathematics (another STEM‐related comparison treatment), and reading (control). Children responded to paper–pencil computational thinking, and spatial orientation measurements, and face‐to‐face matrix reasoning task at pre‐ and post‐tests. Results: Results showed that children's computational thinking scores increased significantly only in the learn‐to‐code condition. Fluid intelligence significantly increased in all conditions, possibly due to a practice effect. The spatial orientation did not improve in any of the conditions. Conclusion: These findings suggested that learning to code can be selectively beneficial for the development of computational thinking skills while not effective for spatial reasoning and fluid intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object word learning can be based on infant‐related factors such as their manual actions and socio‐linguistic factors such as parental input. Specific input for spatial features (i.e., size, shape, features of objects) can be related to object word comprehension in early vocabulary development. In a longitudinal study, we investigated whether fine motor abilities at 14 months and parental input for spatial features at 19 months predicted object word comprehension at 25 months. Twenty‐seven Turkish‐learning children were tested at three time points (Time 1: Mage = 14.4 months, Time 2: Mage = 18.6 months, Time 3: Mage = 25 months). We measured word comprehension through the parental report and fine motor abilities with Mullen at Time 1. We used a puzzle play session to assess parental input for spatial features at Time 2 and a standardized receptive vocabulary test at Time 3. We found that fine motor abilities were related to object word comprehension. However, parental input for spatial features at 19 months predicted object word comprehension at 25 months beyond fine motor abilities at 14 months. Early fine motor abilities and using different words for spatial features may foster infants' visual experiences in play and exploration episodes, leading to better object word learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Becoming productive with grammatical categories is a gradual process in children's language development. Here, we investigated this transition process by focusing on Turkish causatives. Previous research examining spontaneous and elicited production of Turkish causatives with familiar verbs attested the onset and early stages of productivity at ages 2 to 3 (Aksu‐Koç & Slobin, 1985; Nakipoğlu, Uzundag, & Sarıgül, 2021). So far, however, we know very little about children's understanding of causatives with novel verbs. In the present study, we asked: (a) When does the generalization of causative morphology in a novel context emerge? and (b) What role does child‐directed input play in this development? To answer the first question, we conducted comprehension‐judgment experiments with children aged 2;6–6;11 using pseudo‐verbs (Study 1 & 2). Results showed that children preferred the Turkish causative suffix ‐DIr over an unrelated or no suffix to denote caused events earliest at age 4;10. To answer the second question, we analyzed child‐directed speech from a longitudinal corpus of Turkish language acquisition (Study 3). Results showed that when addressing children younger than age 3, caregivers used the ‐DIr suffix with little variation considering the overall variability of verbs they could utter. Overall, these findings suggest that productivity with morphological causatives in a novel context emerges in a later stage of acquisition. This later development might partly be accounted for by the insufficient variation of morphological causatives in the early input. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fundamental to amassing a lexicon of relational terms (i.e., verbs, prepositions) is the ability to abstract and categorize spatial relations such as a figure (e.g., boy) moving along a path (e.g., around the barn). Three studies examine how infants learn to categorize path over changes in manner, or how an action is performed (e.g., running vs. crawling). Experiment 1 ( n = 60) finds that 10- to 12-month-old English-learning infants categorize a figure's path. In Experiment 2 ( n = 27) categorization is disrupted when the ground object is removed, suggesting the relation between figure and ground defines the path. Experiment 3 ( n = 24) shows that language may be a mechanism guiding category formation. These studies suggest that English-learning infants can categorize path, a component lexicalized in the world's languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parents' use of spatial language and gestures is closely linked to children's spatial language development. Little is known about the quantity and quality of early spatial input and how infants' individual characteristics may be related to the spatial input they receive. Here, we examine (1) the amount and type of spatial input 16‐ to 21‐month‐old Turkish‐learning children (n = 34) received in the context of a spatial activity (puzzle play) and (2) whether parental spatial input in the form of speech and gesture varies based on children's age, sex, and early spatial vocabulary comprehension assessed in an earlier session. Results of the regression analyses showed that parents' use of spatial words was predicted by children's age over and beyond earlier spatial word comprehension and sex. In particular, parents used more spatial speech as their children got older even in this restricted age range. Children's early spatial word comprehension also correlated with parents' spatial word production. Yet, parents' overall gesture use and gestures with spatial words were not predicted by children's age, sex, or early spatial word comprehension. These findings suggest that in the spatial domain, early verbal input, but not gestural input, can change depending on children's age and children's spatial vocabulary comprehension may also be related to parental use of later spatial language. Statement of contributionWhat is already known on this subject?Parents enhance their children's spatial skills using spatial language and gestures.Parental spatial talk is related to children's later spatial skills.What does this study add?We assess both spatial talk and gesture in early childhood.We examine the children's characteristics (age, sex) in relation to spatial talk and gesture.We present how children's earlier vocabulary competence relates to parental input. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this article, we review research on child–robot interaction (CRI) to discuss how social robots can be used to scaffold language learning in young children. First we provide reasons why robots can be useful for teaching first and second languages to children. Then we review studies on CRI that used robots to help children learn vocabulary and produce language. The studies vary in first and second languages and demographics of the learners (typically developing children and children with hearing and communication impairments). We conclude that, although social robots are useful for teaching language to children, evidence suggests that robots are not as effective as human teachers. However, this conclusion is not definitive because robots that tutor students in language have not been evaluated rigorously and technology is advancing rapidly. We suggest that CRI offers an opportunity for research and list possible directions for that work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]