Source Themes

Analyzing the effect of sibling number on input and output in the first 18 months

An analysis of number of siblings (0, 1, 2+) in relation to vocabulary size at 18 months, and language input over the first 18 months of life.

COVID-19 first lockdown as a window into language acquisition - associations between caregiver-child activities and vocabulary gains

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting closure of daycare centers worldwide, led to unprecedented changes in children’s learning environments. This period of increased time at home with caregivers, with limited access to external sources (e.g., …

A role for onomatopoeia in early language - evidence from phonological development

In this review I bring together the literature on onomatopoeia specifically and iconicity more generally to consider infants’ acquisition from three perspectives - perception, production, and interaction.

An example preprint / working paper

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Phonological motivation for the acquisition of onomatopoeia - An analysis of early words

This study analyses infants’ early word production to show a phonological motivation for onomatopoeia in early acquisition. Cross-linguistic evidence from 16 infants demonstrates how these forms fit within a phonologically-systematic developing lexicon.

Mothers’ Work Status and 17‐Month‐Olds’ Productive Vocabulary

An analysis of naturalistic data, observing the productive vocabulary of 44 17‐month‐olds in relation to mothers’ work status (full time, part time, stay at home) at 6 and 18 months. Infants who experienced a combination of care from mothers and other caretakers had larger productive vocabularies than infants in solely full‐time maternal or solely other‐caretaker care

A perceptual advantage for onomatopoeia in early word learning - Evidence from eye-tracking

In a picture-mapping task, 10- and 11-month-old infants showed a processing advantage for onomatopoeia (e.g., *woof woof*) over their conventional counterparts (e.g., *doggie*). However, further analysis suggests that the input may play a key role in infants’ experience and processing of these forms.

How salient are onomatopoeia in the early input? A prosodic analysis of infant-directed speech

Onomatopoeic words (e.g. *quack*) were compared acoustically with their corresponding conventional words (*duck*). Onomatopoeia were more salient than conventional words across all features measured - mean pitch, pitch range, word duration, repetition, and pause length.

A phonological analysis of onomatopoeia in early word production

An analysis of longitudinal diary data from one infant acquiring German to seek a better understanding of the role of onomatopoeia in early language development across the first 500 words.

A phonological analysis of onomatopoeia in early word production

An analysis of longitudinal diary data from one infant acquiring German to seek a better understanding of the role of onomatopoeia in early language development across the first 500 words.