Object relative clauses (RCs) are, in general, more difficult to process than subject RCs. Yet, if the noun phrases (NPs) in an object RC meet certain lexical, semantic, and discourse-based expectations, this processing asymmetry disappears. However, the effect of discourse-based expectations has only been studied in adults. This is the first study to examine the nature of discourse-based features of NPs, alongside lexical and semantic NP features, in complex sentences in naturalistic child-directed and child speech through English developmental (2-5 years) corpora. We analyzed 1126 and 495 RCs from caregivers and children respectively. We found that the lexical and semantic characteristics of the NPs in subject and object RCs are similar to those previously observed in adult-directed speech and do not show great differences between child and child-directed speech. For the discourse-based features, however, we found differences between previously reported studies of adult-directed speech and our analyses of child and child-directed speech. Whereas in adult-directed speech, object RCs tend to have discourse-new head NPs, most of the object RCs in child and child-directed speech have discourse-old head NPs. In addition, both children and caregivers tend to use non-topical NPs within object RCs. We conclude that the distribution of discourse-based information in child and child-directed speech is different from that in adult-directed speech. We further discuss how these distributional patterns shape the expectations that language users bring to comprehension and production.
This study examined the relationship between cognitive abilities and linguistic abilities in children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). The cognitive abilities we investigated were scene analogies (a form of nonverbal analogical reasoning), grammatical analogies (using a grammatical sensitivity subtest from a foreign language aptitude test battery), implicit statistical learning, and inhibition. 39 language typical children and 34 children with DLD (M = 10;8 years) took part in a moderated online study. Our results revealed large between-group differences in all linguistic abilities. Regarding cognitive measures, there were large between-group differences in performance for both analogical reasoning tasks, but similar performance between groups in inhibition and implicit statistical learning. The most striking finding was that analogical reasoning is the cognitive ability that predicted most of the variance in all linguistic measures, suggesting that analogical reasoning could play a key role in linguistic abilities in children with and without DLD.
Personal narratives are commonly shared in adolescent social interactions, forming an important role in supporting social connection and emotion well-being. The aim of this systematic review was to consider the literature regarding the sampling and analysis of personal narratives in adolescence, to identify elicitation tasks and language measures used in examining this discourse genre. The review draws on a broader PROSPERO-registered systematic review [CRD42022345679] examining personal narrative assessment in children and adolescents. The original search, conducted across six databases (updated September 2024), identified 20,251 records, of which 211 met inclusion criteria. Twenty-seven studies involving adolescents (12–18 years) and analysing spoken personal narratives met the inclusion criteria for the present review. Of particular interest, was research focused on adolescents with mental health concerns. Data were systematically extracted to answer research questions concerning aspects of the elicitation and analysis of personal narratives from adolescents with and without mental health concerns. Two-thirds of the studies were focused on areas of psychological functioning, while nine studies examined aspects of language performance. Three studies examined personal narratives elicited from adolescents with mental health concerns. Several variations of elicitation tasks and around 50 language measures were identified in the literature. The range of elicitation tasks and language measures used to examine spoken language, highlights the rich source of data that can be drawn from analysing personal narratives. However, there is a clear need to examine the personal narratives of adolescents with mental health concerns, with greater collaboration between the fields of research in this area.
Media has become a consistent part of children’s learning environment with the potential to influence language development. Specifically, television provides exposure to authentic language input, pronunciation, prosody, and contextual use of words. While studies to date have informed the general effects of media on children’s learning, information about the words targeted and the extent to which vocabulary teaching strategies are embedded in children’s educational media is limited. Further, little is known about whether the lexical characteristics of the vocabulary used in educational media align with features described in the literature on child-directed speech (CDS). To address this paucity of evidence, the present study explored characteristics of target vocabulary including quantity, grammatical category, and age of acquisition, as well as the strategies employed to expose children to words in educational media. Specifically, we were interested in the use of repetition, definition, and elaboration, three evidence-based vocabulary teaching strategies. Eight episodes of six popular children’s educational television programs were analyzed. Results indicated variability in the number of words targeted within and between programs and that the primary lexical category targeted consistently was nouns, with adjectives and verbs also occurring in some programs. The age of acquisition of the words being targeted varied within and between programs. Repetition was the most used vocabulary teaching strategy followed by definition and lastly, elaboration. Findings are interpreted in relation to lexical characteristics and strategies described in the CDS literature.
Asymmetric speech sound discrimination has been observed in both adults and infants. Here we focus on the so-called labial-coronal asymmetry. Previous research with Dutch- and Japanese-learning infants found successful discrimination between /ɔmpa/ and /ɔnta/ only after habituation to /ɔmpa / (Tsuji et al., 2015). We hypothesized that this asymmetry is due to the inherent greater intensity of coronal compared to labial stop consonants. However, testing 64 French- and English-learning five-month-olds with Tsuji et al.’s stimuli, we observed successful discrimination regardless of language and of habituation condition, with only a numeric asymmetry in the predicted direction. So, we propose alternative ways to test our hypothesis in future research.
