Fine lexical tuning in infant directed speech to typically developing children

Abstract

Do parents fine-tune the MLU of utterances with a particular word as the word is on the verge of appearing in the child's production? We analyzed a corpus of spontaneous interactions of 30 dyads. The children were in the initial stages of their lexical development, and the parents’ utterances containing the words the children eventually acquired were selected. The main finding is that the MLU of the parental utterances containing the target words gradually decreased up to the point of the children's first production of those words. This suggests that parents fine-tune their utterances to support the children's linguistic development.

Tailoring the Input to Children's Needs: The Use of Fine Lexical Tuning in Speech Directed to Normally Hearing Children and Children With Cochlear Implants

“…They found a systematic decrease of MLU in IDS in the period of time preceding the "word's birth, " i.e., the first time a word was produced by the child. In a replication study involving 30 typically developing children, a phenomenon similar to the one highlighted in Roy et al's (2009) case study was established: a decrease in parents' MLU before word birth and a slight increase months after word birth (Odijk and Gillis, 2021). Thus, parents seem to adjust their utterances when tuning in to the infant's lexical knowledge.…”

“…It is expected that parents of CI children implement similar changes at the level of individual lexical items as parents of NH children. More specifically, parents of NH children have been shown to adjust their speech at the level of individual words: they shorten their utterances containing the words that the child is on the verge of acquiring (Roy et al, 2009;Odijk and Gillis, 2021). Consequently, in the present study the evolution of the MLU of the IDS addressed to NH and CI children was not aligned on chronological age, but relative to the first appearance of particular words in the child's speech (Odijk and Gillis, 2021).…”

“…More specifically, parents of NH children have been shown to adjust their speech at the level of individual words: they shorten their utterances containing the words that the child is on the verge of acquiring (Roy et al, 2009;Odijk and Gillis, 2021). Consequently, in the present study the evolution of the MLU of the IDS addressed to NH and CI children was not aligned on chronological age, but relative to the first appearance of particular words in the child's speech (Odijk and Gillis, 2021). It was expected that caregivers of infants with CI would tune their utterances to the emergence of words even more than caregivers of children with NH, thus showing their inclination to compensate for the children's auditory limitations.…”

Parents tune their vowels to the emergence of children’s words

“…This is an example of coarse tuning, but there is also tuning of IDS at the level of individual lexical items: fine lexical tuning. This type of adaptation can also be seen in the development of the MLU: parents take into account the children's familiarity with particular lexical items and adapt the length of the utterances containing these words (Odijk & Gillis, 2021;Roy et al, 2009). It was found that MLU in IDS appeared to evolve relative to 'word births', i.e.…”

Mothers’ use of touch across infants’ development and its implications for word learning: Evidence from Korean dyadic interactions

“…In particular, the so-called fine-tuning hypothesis of CDS has postulated a noticeable change around the time the child begins to speak their first words, which is a milestone easy to observe. In light of this hypothesis, it is important to consider developmental adaptations of CDS when discussing the characteristics of CDS -be it the speech signal itself or relationships with any other cue that accompanies it (Odijk & Gillis, 2021;Author, 2018). Such developmentally-driven changes have also been reported for other cues utilized by caregivers during interactions with young infants.…”