SRCLD Presentation Details
  Title  
       
    A Microgenetic Analysis of Word Learning in Infants with and without Language Delay using a Preferential Looking Paradigm  
Author(s)
Erica Ellis - SDSU/UC San Diego, Joint Doctoral Program: Language and Communicative Disorders
Julia Evans - SDSU/UC San Diego, Joint Doctoral Program: Language and Communicative Disorders; Center for Research in Language
Katherine Travis - Department of Neuroscience, UC San Diego
Jeff Elman - UC San Diego, Cognitive Science, Center for Research in Language
Donna Thal - Distinguished Professor Emerita, San Diego State University

SRCLD Info
SRCLD Year: 2010
Presentation Type: Poster Presentation
Poster Number:
Presentation Time: (na)
Categories
- Assessment
- Cognition/Language
- Language Impairment, 0-5
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate novel word learning using a microgenetic, preferential looking paradigm, in a 20 month-old infant with history of language delay and a 20 month-old infant with normal language development to determine if infants with language delay require more exposure to novel label/object pairings before they evidence word learning. Using a fixed trial training phase, we examined learning over time in a habituation learning paradigm. Preliminary results suggest there are qualitative differences between the at-risk compared to the typical participant in the ability to attach meaning to novel words and degree of learning. The typical participant appeared to learn and exhibited the expected pattern of looking at test, while the infant with delay showed a different looking pattern at test. Findings may provide information regarding how children are identified at-risk for language delay. (Research support: NIDCD R01-DC005650 (PI Evans), NIGMS MBRS R25-58906, NIDCD T32 DC007361 (PI Shapiro), MacArthur Bates CDI Board.