No Images? Click here Child Language Lab Newsletter- February 2018
Current Studies: Many Babies Project We are looking for 12-15 month-olds with parents who speak English at home! Infant researchers across the world are collaborating in the largest infant study ever conducted: the "ManyBabies" project. Macquarie University's Child Language Lab has decided to take part in this project which tests whether infants prefer listening to infant-directed speech over adult-directed speech. We totally expect that infants will prefer the infant-directed speech, as it has been shown time and again that they do. This is the first time that labs across the world conduct the exact same infant study, and therefore the first time that we can test whether infants across the world behave the same in infant experiments! We are now recruiting infants aged between 12-15 months who have parents that only speak English at home.The task which will be conducted at the Australian Hearing Hub will take approximately 30 mins to complete. You and your child will receive a $20 Coles/Myer gift card for taking part in the study. For more information, please contact us on ling.cll@mq.edu.au or 9860 6705. New Members Meet our PACE student Caitlin! Over the summer, the Child Language Lab welcomed undergraduate student Caitlin Pugh as part of the University’s PACE program. PACE (Professional and Community Engagement) is a University initiative which provides undergraduate students with real-world learning experience. Caitlin is a 3rd year Speech, Hearing, and Language Sciences student who is interested in pursuing a career in research. She assisted the lab with running research trial studies, participant recruitment and data collection. “This placement has given me an invaluable glimpse into the world of academia and research, and the opportunity to use knowledge from my degree in a practical environment” - Caitlin Pugh Caitlin will be continuing to work at the lab as a volunteer research assistant. Many thanks to Dr. Titia Benders for supervising. Research Highlights Ping Tang visits the China Rehabilitation Research Centre for Hearing and Speech Impairment At the end of last year, PhD student, Ping Tang, once again visited Beijing to collect data with collaborator Prof. Liqun Gao at the China Rehabilitation Research Centre for Hearing and Speech Impairment. They tested more than 80 children aged between 3 to 7 years old with cochlear implants. Ping is now currently analysing the results which will be most valuable in understanding the tonal development among Mandarin children with hearing impairment. The data may inform future interventions for children with hearing impairment who speak tonal languages. PhD submitted! Congratulations Ben Davies! Congratulations to Child Language Lab member Ben Davies, who recently submitted his PhD thesis entitled “Children’s Gradual Acquisition of Singular and Plural”. Ben was supervised by Distinguished Prof. Katherine Demuth and Dr. Nan Xu Rattanasone (Macquarie University). Ben's study examined how and when children develop an understanding of the plural rules in English. This research found that children acquire the rules for -s plurals first, and then learn the rules for -es almost a year later. Learning these rules is furthermore a slow and gradual process. It’s not until children are heading off to school at around age five that they have a firm grasp on how the English plural works. This research is especially important for children with hearing loss, as the sounds s and z are typically the sounds most affected by hearing loss. Indeed, it was found that children with hearing loss do have a more difficult time learning the plural rules in English. Ben’s thesis research provides insight into how children acquire an understanding of abstract linguistic rules, and lays important groundwork towards developing clinical interventions for children at risk of delay. Upcoming events Child Bilingual Development workshop: 26th - 27th July 2018, Macquarie University, SydneyMore than half of the children around the world grow up in bilingual environments. In English-speaking countries, including Australia, many children are Early Sequential Bilinguals (ESBs), who start learning their second language at preschool or school. Despite their increasing numbers, our knowledge of how ESBs acquire a second language (L2) is still very limited. This poses a challenge both for assessing school readiness, academic achievement, and for identifying those at risk for language disorders. This workshop brings together international leaders in the field of bilingual research to discuss current issues in bilingual language acquisition. It should be of interest to researchers, clinicians, educators, parents and the general public, with implications for all. The workshop is free and anyone is welcome to attend! Register here by July 20th, 2018. Funded by the Centre for Language Sciences (CLaS), Australian Research Council (ARC) FL130100014, the Child Language Lab Macquarie University and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders (CCD). Conference Reports The 42nd Boston University Conference on Language Development: November 2017, Boston, USA In November, Distinguished Prof. Katherine Demuth and Dr. Nan Xu Rattanasone attended the Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD). Last year, in addition to research on monolingual and bilingual children, there was also a growing number of research on children with hearing loss. A number of studies explored what children with hearing loss know about the English speech sounds, what challenges they might have in forming abstract representations and how their speech processing skills might be affected by hearing loss. Katherine and Nan presented some recent work looking at children’s understanding of the English plural for both monolingual and bilingual children. Their presentations attracted a lot of interest and informed discussions, including the fact that children don’t simply interpret all words ending in -s as a plural, e.g., nose vs., bees. Overall, the conference was packed with stimulating new research findings, held in pleasant autumn weather, with squirrels everywhere! |