Subjects: Other Disciplines >> Synthetic discipline submitted time 2023-10-09 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Speech-like vocalizations are sounds that resemble adult speech and are the precursor for subsequent language development. The current study explored the relationship between vocalizations and language in typically developing infants and young children with language disorders, specifically the quantity of vocalizations, phonological quality of vocalizations, and the communicative quality of vocalizations. The quantity of vocalizations, the total number of vocalizations, predicts expressive language, but inconsistently predicts receptive language development. The phonological quality of vocalizations is measured through four indicators, of which the proportion or frequency of vocalizations with a canonical syllable, consonant inventory and diversity of key consonants used in communication predict expressive language, while the age at canonical babbling onset inconsistently predicts age of word onset and expressive vocabulary size. The communicative quality of vocalizations, including the number of communication acts with a vocalization and proportion of communicative vocalizations, predicts expressive language.Three mechanisms explain how speech-like vocalizations may predict future language ability: speech-like vocalizations provide the basis for language production, create optimal learning states for language learning, and promote socially contingent responses. The first mechanism emphasizes the foundations of speech-like vocalizations, i.e., they provide the phonological basis for early vocabulary and the functional flexibility for language. The second mechanism emphasizes the influence of speech-like vocalizations on children’s own language learning status, i.e., speech-like vocalizations indicate that the child is in an attentional state that facilitates learning, speech-like vocalizations help the child’s speech perception, and reflects the child’s motivation to actively participate in social interactions. The third mechanism emphasizes the social function of speech-like vocalizations, i.e., children elicit responses from social partners through speech-like vocalizations, which provide contingent, scaffolding support, and didactic information. All three mechanisms contribute to the transition of children’s speech-like vocalizations to language.Many studies have investigated the correlation between speech-like vocalizations and language ability, and future studies may consider exploring the causal relationship between speech-like vocalizations and language development. For example, a speech-like vocalization intervention for children with language disorders could be used to examine its causal relationship with language. The relationship between language ability and speech-like vocalizations may be influenced by factors such as cognition, age and degree of impairment in children with language disorders, and the moderating effects of these factors may be investigated in the future. Different criteria for speech-like vocalization indicators and language testing methods may also influence this prediction, and controlling for the role of these two factors is one of the directions for future research. Future research could also investigate individual differences among children with language disorders, and explore if specific speech-like vocalizations of children with different language disorders are uniquely predictive of future language in order to better implement interventions. How the dynamic interaction between children’s speech-like vocalizations and social responses promotes their transition to language is another question worthy of exploration, especially the longitudinal exploration of children’s vocal development and social responses during interaction.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-02-01
Abstract：
Speech-like vocalizations are sounds that resemble adult speech and are the precursor for subsequent language development. Studies have shown that the frequency of speech-like vocalizations, canonical syllable ratio, consonant diversity, and communicative vocalizations in young children predict expressive language, but factors that predict receptive language development remain unclear. Additionally, findings investigating whether babble onset predicts word onset are also mixed. To a certain extent, the predictive relationship between speech-like vocalizations and language development can be explained by three mechanisms: speech-like vocalizations provide the basis for language production, speech-like vocalizations create an optimal learning state for language learning, and speech-like vocalizations promote social behavior. Future research may consider exploring the causal relationship between speech-like vocalizations and language development, moderating effects of related factors on speech-like vocalizations in predicting language development, uniquely valuable speech-like vocalizations for children with language disorders, and the dynamic interaction between speech-like vocalizations and social responses.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Medical Psychology submitted time 2021-10-14
Abstract： Early identification and early intervention of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are critical to their developmental outcomes. Vocalizations are sounds produced by children before they learn to talk. Studies suggested that unusual nonspeech-like and speech-like vocalizations are potential early identification makers for children with ASD before the age of 2 years. The theoretical explanations for unusual vocalizations mainly include the motivation orientation theories, the neuromotor orientation theories, the perceptual orientation theory, and the social feedback orientation theory. Future research may consider in (1) exploring the possibility of unusual vocalizations as unique early identification markers for children with ASD, (2) strengthening the study of crying in early screening of children with ASD, (3) constructing an automatic learning classification model based on the strongest predictive acoustic parameters, (4) analyzing the influence of intrinsic and social motivation on speech-like vocalizations in children with ASD, and (5) investigating the neural mechanisms of unusual speech-like vocalizations. These evidence may be helpful for early identification and intervention of children with ASD."
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