Tag: Lauren Cycyk

Comparing Language Exposure Measures in Dual Language Contexts

Comparing Language Exposure Measures in Dual Language Contexts

Brandon Zuel − Communication Disorders & Sciences

Co Presenter(s): Melanie Bethancourt

Faculty Mentor(s): Stephanie De Anda, Lauren Cycyk

Poster 130

Research Area: Social Science

Parent report is a common method for quantifying language exposure in bilingual children however it is not always reliable. A less studied method is analyzing real-world language input. The present study seeks to fill the gap of quantifying language exposure by examining the amount of language input in each language through real-world audio recording in the everyday lives of bilingual toddlers. This preliminary study presents data on 2 participants from Spanish-speaking homes (Participant A: 18;0, male; Participant B: 18;25, female). Audio recordings were captured using the Language Environment Analysis device (Ford, Baer, Xu, Yapanel & Gray, 2009). 16 hours of language input data were collected over three days. The data was then analyzed in 5-minute increments to quantify exposure to English and Spanish. We calculated exposure during periods when the child had the highest amount of (a) adult words in the environment, (b) linguistically meaningful interactions, and (c) child-directed speech. Results indicated that full-day audio recordings and all discrete segments demonstrated comparable calculations of language exposure. That is, language exposure captured in the three afromentioned methods demonstrated similar measurements, and these mirrored parent estimates as well. Together these results show that several methods of calculating language exposure within language samples yield relatively similar estimates. However, this is based on two participants with relatively stable exposure to Spanish. We plan to provide data on an additional 6 participants at the time of the poster presentation to ask whether children with more exposure to English demonstrate a similar pattern of results.

Electronic Media Exposure and Early Vocabulary Acquisition in Spanish-Speaking Homes

Presenter(s): Ashley Goussak − Communication Disorders and Sciences

Faculty Mentor(s): Lauren Cycyk

Oral Session 1S

Research Area: Communication Disorders and Sciences

The purpose of this study is to describe the electronic media exposure of young children from Mexican immigrant backgrounds in their home and to investigate the association between media exposure and children’s vocabulary development. Thirty children between the ages of 15 and 24 months participated. Audio recordings of children’s home environment were completed through LENA technology and information on children’s productive vocabulary was collected through the MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventory and MacArthur Inventario Del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas (Inventario). The electronic media captured on the audio recordings was categorized by frequency (i.e., percentage of total minutes of recording time), type of programming (i.e., child directed versus adult directed, cartoons, or educational child-directed media), and language (i.e., Spanish or English). These characteristics of children’s media exposure were described. Then, the association of these characteristics to children’s English and Spanish productive vocabulary was examined through nonparametric, rank order correlation analyses. The findings indicated that children were more likely to be exposed to adult directed electronic media rather than child directed media and were more likely to be exposed to programs in Spanish than English. No significant associations were found between children’s vocabulary and any characteristic of electronic media exposure for toddlers from these backgrounds. Overall, this study contributes to the understanding of the development of language for bilingual Spanish-English speakers and helps speech-language pathologists best understand clients from these linguistic backgrounds.

Comparing Language Input Measures with TV Exposure in Dual Language Learners

Presenter(s): Brandon Zuel

Co Presenter(s): Rachael Dahlen, Sean Galka

Faculty Mentor(s): Stephanie De Anda & Lauren Cycyk

Poster 157

 Session: Social Sciences & Humanities

The use of parent report is a common method for quantifying language exposure in bilingual children. A less studied method is analyzing real-world language input. Additionally, there is a lack of research that examines how English and Spanish language input from television (TV) can impact the linguistic experience of bilingual children. The present study seeks to fill the gap of quantifying language exposure by examining the amount of language input in each language through real-world audio recording in the everyday lives of bilingual toddlers.

The study presents data on participants from Spanish-speaking homes (N= 10 participants; 4 female, 6 male, median age = 19.5 months; range: 17 months to 22 months). Sixteen hours of language input data were collected over three days for each participant. From these recordings, we calculated exposure to Spanish and English via TV sources during periods when the child had the highest amount of (a) adult words, (b) linguistically meaningful interactions (highest amount of human input within six feet), and (c) child-directed speech (versus overheard speech).

Results showed that TV exposure is related to the segmentation method categories of highest adult words, linguistically meaningful interactions, and highest child-directed speech due to a lot of meaningful language being present within those language samples. Typically, we found that the moments of high TV exposure did not align with moments of high language exposure as a function of adult words, linguistically meaningful interactions, and child-directed speech. This work informs our understanding of the language environment of bilinguals across a variety of sources.