Infant Language / Benefit of Play

1. Infant Language / Benefit of Play Roberta Michnick Golinkoff University of Delaware

2. How do babies learn to talk?(Andwhy do we care if our children play?) Roberta Michnick Golinkoff University of Delaware

4. Why, in a conference on Women and Children’s Health, might we focus on language development…

5. Four take- away messages – So you can nap now!

6. Big Point #1 • Language is the core ability needed for success in school • Disruption: Negative correlation between middle ear infections and school achievement (Teele et al., 1990) • Social problems: Children with poor language skills more likely to be isolated and ignored by peers (e.g., Rice, 1993;Lindsey & Dockrell, 2000) • Math: Language plays a distinct role in mathematical achievement (e.g., Jordan et a., 2007; LeFevre et al., 2010). • The more we understand about how it is acquired, the more we can effectively intervene

7. Big Point #2 • Reading is parasitic on language • Goal of reading: Extraction of meaning from printed page – otherwise it’s all just like decoding Greek with no meaning – poor kids have problems with comprehension

8. Big Point #3 • There is an SES disparity in • vocabulary – lower SES kids know fewer words • How early does it start? • Children’s gestures at 14 months predict to their • vocabulary at 54 mos! (Rowe & Goldin-Meadow, 2009) • Why? • Parents who use more gestures have children who use more. When gestures are honored, kids learn names for things. Treat child as communicative partner!!!

9. Big Point #4 Language and literacy contribute to health outcomes! “Low literacy may impair functioning in the health care environment, affect patient-physician communication dynamics, and inadvertently lead to substandard medical care. It is associated with poor understanding of written or spoken medical advice, adverse health outcomes, and negative effects on the health of the population.” US Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

10. Why does early language matter? After all, kids aren’t reading healthcare instructions! “What children experience during the early years sets a critical foundation for their entire life course. This is because early childhood development —including the physical, social/emotional and language/cognitive domains—strongly influences basic learning, school success, economic participation, social citizenry, and health.” (World Health Organization’s Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, 2007)

11. So language really matters for many sectors of our lives… Some facts about language learning you might want to know • Children learn language early! Begins in the womb. • Infants bring a great deal with them for language learning. They are brilliant at it! • Responsive, sensitive ‘input’ is critical.

12. Today’s talk: In 5 parts 1. Language - An introduction to the problem space • What we see when our children learn to talk • What we don’t see! 4. Applications 5. Why play matters for language – and everything else!

13. Language can start wars ruin marriages allow a presentation

14. Humans are the only species to have language • Allows us to share thoughts and feelings • Transmit knowledge and culture • Say what we want in our coffee

15. The “problem space”:What is language? Speaking: Mapping meanings in our heads to sounds Understanding others’ language: Transforming speech sounds to meanings

16. Consider the task that faces the language-learning child They hear a sound stream

17. What do babies need to do? Break the sound stream up into units: segmentation Figure out the meaning of the resulting units: vocabulary Figure out how words combine to make sentences in your language: syntax

18. What you see…original theories of language development were based on production, or what the child said that you could see

19. What you see: The doctor’s chart 0-3mo: coos, vegetative noises 3-6 mo: coos, laughs, gurgles 6-9 mo: babbling (e.g., bababa) turn taking; pat-a-cake 9-12 mo: points; first words; Bam Bam 12-18 mo: 2 words per week; 50 words 18-24 mo: naming explosion; “Whas sat?; Talk about here and now; loves stories over and over; follows simple commands 2-3 yrs: 500 words; asks questions; past tense; Wh-; sits 20 minutes; WHY?; pronounce clearly - m,n,f,b,d,h,y; uses fuller sentences with “in,” and “on.”; girls might appear to stutter

20. A wonderful example! Meet Elio & Marina: Twins, 3 Adult: “Do you remember what it looked like in Mommy Sasha's belly?” Elio: "It was pretty dark, but I got a flashlight like Dora and looked for Marina.”

21. What you don’t see… Current theories are based on what you can’t see with the naked eye…. The last 40 years: A revolution in our understanding of how children solve this age-old problem

22. Did you know ……. • At birth, babies recognize their mother’s voice over a strange female’s? • Recognize their own language over a foreign language? • Can remember stories and songs they heard while in utero? • Can discriminate between sounds, e.g., /b/ vs. /d/, found in all the world’s languages?

23. Tackling one part of the puzzle of language learning: Learning words

24. How does the character of word learning change over the first two years of life? Fido versus Freddy Fido learns words associatively needing hundreds of trials Freddy learns words by noting the social intent of the speaker, i.e., what does the speaker intend to name? (Demo)

25. What did we find? • 10 months:Fido lives! Child assumes that a label refers to an interesting object – even when we look at and label the boring object. • 12 months: Fido fading! Can learn name only for interesting object; no longer mismap. .

26. 18 months Freddy emerging! Can learn name for boring object but still lured by perceptual salience. • Freddy lives! • 24 months Mature word learning. Uses social cues to label boring object; overrides perceptual salience.

27. A demonstration from Pruden et al. (2006)

28. But this is just the tip of the iceberg! *6-month-olds can learn a new word if it follows their own name rather than someone else’s name *8-month-olds are computing transitional probabilities between syllables to find words! *10-month-olds can learn 2 new words in one session! *17-month-olds, saying as few as 2 words, can watch the correct event when offered 6-word sentences like “Big Bird is tickling Cookie Monster!”

29. But you are rightfully incredulous: How do we know all of this about baby competencies? A host of new methodologies offers researchers a window onto the baby’s mind!

30. The High Amplitude Sucking Paradigm Perception of sounds

31. The Intermodal Preferential Looking Paradigm Vocabulary, syntax, concepts

33. Reconsider! Babies are at language learning. brilliant

34. Applications: How can we use our hard won knowledge baseto improve children’s lives?

35. We know the ingredients for best outcomes for language… • Children need interactive, responsive environments • Babies need to hear lots of language to calculate their statistics over • Babies need to hear language about what fascinates them – and “baby talk” helps!

36. CHOICES Delawarehttp://choices-delaware.org/ • We are determined to provide children with hearing loss the kind of input they need for language learning! Children with cochlear implants need massive language exposure! Appropriate education for these children is not available yet in our state!

37. What form do sensitive and responsive environments take? They are often playful! Language comes through play – with parents, caregivers, peers, and in school But the American Academy of Pediatrics had to issue a “white paper” on play!

38. But why do our children need play – and playful and engaged learning in school? • We are leaving the information age, where getting the facts was enough…. • We are entering a new era, a knowledge agein which integrating information and innovation is key.(see Drucker) • The 3 R’s? Insufficient for our future economic success! • We need content, collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creative innovation, and confidence. • The 6 C’s

39. The managerial and creative skills that start here…

40. Yet we have been wearing out our • children by • Engaging in “drill-and-kill” activities rather than playful and meaningful learning, even at the youngest ages!

43. To remedy the fact that play has become a 4-letter word We wanted to share the science of learning with the public and start a movement to restore play and playful learning to their rightful place in our democracy

44. On October 3, 2010, we put the science of play in the hands of the people at Central Park in New York City!

45. the arts and sciences of play 25 activities helped us realize our goal Each activity was based in a nugget of science! Examples include: Simon Says links to self control Block play links to spatial learning But did it work? Did families come out?

46. More than 50,000 people!!!! To play with cardboard boxes, sing and dance, construction toys, and play bilingual bingo!

47. And this is just the beginning! • LEARN -- web portal • Publishing arm • Talking with Houston, Atlanta, Baltimore and other cities! When (in a recent IBM survey) 1500 CEO’s tell us that, “…a world of increasing complexity [needs] a new generation of leaders that make creativity the path forward for successful enterprises” we know that America’s children need more play and playful learning!