The impact of the home musical environment on infants’ language development

Papadimitriou, Aspasia; Smyth, Catherine; Politimou, Nina; Franco, Fabia

doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2021.101651

Cited by 24 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…The amount and quality of language input play an important role in language acquisition (Hoareau et al., 2019; Weisleder & Fernald, 2013). Also, early exposure to music can boost infants’ language abilities (Franco et al., 2022; Lebedeva & Kuhl, 2010; Papadimitriou et al., 2021; Zhao & Kuhl, 2016). Because infants experience language and music predominantly at home, we asked caregivers to estimate how much time they dedicate to playing instrumental music, singing, reciting nursery rhymes, and reading to their infant.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even preschool children trained with various musical activities can show enhanced phoneme and syllable recognition, word and sentence comprehension, as well as linguistic rhythm perception (Degé & Schwarzer, 2011). Early experience with music can even enhance infants’ ability to detect temporal violations in speech (Zhao & Kuhl, 2016), phonetic perception (Lebedeva & Kuhl, 2010), word learning (Franco et al., 2022; Papadimitriou et al., 2021), categorical perception of pitch in music intervals (Siegel & Siegel, 1977), and word‐level lexical tones (Chen et al., 2020; Wu et al., 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Music and language in the crib: Early cross‐domain effects of experience on categorical perception of prominence in spoken language

Langus

Boll-Avetisyan

Ommen

et al. 2023

Developmental Science

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Rhythm perception helps young infants find structure in both speech and music. However, it remains unknown whether categorical perception of suprasegmental linguistic rhythm signaled by a co‐variation of multiple acoustic cues can be modulated by prior between‐ (music) and within‐domain (language) experience. Here we tested 6‐month‐old German‐learning infants’ ability to have a categorical perception of lexical stress, a linguistic prominence signaled through the co‐variation of pitch, intensity, and duration. By measuring infants’ pupil size, we find that infants as a group fail to perceive co‐variation of these acoustic cues as categorical. However, at an individual level, infants with above‐average exposure to music and language at home succeeded. Our results suggest that early exposure to music and infant‐directed language can boost the categorical perception of prominence.Research Highlights 6‐month‐old German‐learning infants’ ability to perceive lexical stress prominence categorically depends on exposure to music and language at home. Infants with high exposure to music show categorical perception. Infants with high exposure to infant‐directed language show categorical perception. Co‐influence of high exposure to music and infant‐directed language may be especially beneficial for categorical perception. Early exposure to predictable rhythms boosts categorical perception of prominence.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Music and language in the crib: Early cross‐domain effects of experience on categorical perception of prominence in spoken language

Langus

Boll-Avetisyan

Ommen

et al. 2023

Developmental Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In general, our finding that exposure to more predictable patterns of auditory input was associated with more robust neural and behavioral measures of sustained attention is consistent with prior work examining variations in the periodicity of early environments. Indeed, children's early life environments vary greatly in predictability (Glynn et al., 2021; Papadimitriou et al., 2021), which are observable across a variety of scales and measures, including daily routines (Roche & Ghazarian, 2012), patterns of social interactions (Feldman, 2007), and early language exposure (Narayan & McDermott, 2016). As such, the predictability of auditory stimulation may be tied with other periodic aspects of the early environment, including factors within the family's control (e.g., daily routines) and factors outside of the family's control (e.g., ambenvironmental noise).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Signal in the noise: Dimensions of predictability in the home auditory environment are associated with neurobehavioral measures of early infant sustained attention

Werchan

Brandes‐Aitken

Brito

2022

Developmental Psychobiology

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The home auditory environment influences the development of early language abilities, and excessive noise exposure is increasingly linked with deficits in language and reading scores in children. However, fewer studies have considered the role of noise exposure in shaping the development of attentional processing in early infancy, a foundational neurocognitive skill relevant for learning. Here, we used passive at‐home auditory recording to investigate how multiple dimensions of infants’ home auditory environments, including both the quantity and the predictability of auditory input, impacts neural and behavioral measures of sustained attention in a sociodemographically diverse sample of 3‐month‐old infants (N = 98 infants, 62 males; age M = 3.48 months, SD = 0.39; 52% Hispanic/Latino). Results indicated that infants who were exposed to more predictable patterns of auditory input in the home demonstrated longer overall time in sustained attention during laboratory assessments. In addition, infants’ who experienced more predictable auditory input also demonstrated greater relative increases in electroencephalography frontal theta power during periods of sustained attention, a neural marker relevant to information processing and attentional control. These findings provide novel evidence into the importance of the predictability of early environmental inputs in shaping developing cortical circuitry and attentional systems from the first months of postnatal life.

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“…Like ID speech, infants’ experiences with ID song are associated with their language and communication development including gesture use (Gerry et al., 2012; Papadimitriou et al., 2021), receptive language (Papadimitriou et al., 2021), and vocabulary (Franco et al., 2021). However, infants’ visual attention allocation during ID song is less studied, despite song being ubiquitous in infants’ communicative environments (Steinberg et al., 2021; Trehub et al., 1997; Yan et al., 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infant‐directed song potentiates infants’ selective attention to adults’ mouths over the first year of life

Alviar

Sahoo

Edwards

et al. 2023

Developmental Science

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The mechanisms by which infant‐directed (ID) speech and song support language development in infancy are poorly understood, with most prior investigations focused on the auditory components of these signals. However, the visual components of ID communication are also of fundamental importance for language learning: over the first year of life, infants’ visual attention to caregivers’ faces during ID speech switches from a focus on the eyes to a focus on the mouth, which provides synchronous visual cues that support speech and language development. Caregivers’ facial displays during ID song are highly effective for sustaining infants’ attention. Here we investigate if ID song specifically enhances infants’ attention to caregivers’ mouths. 299 typically developing infants watched clips of female actors engaging them with ID song and speech longitudinally at six time points from 3 to 12 months of age while eye‐tracking data was collected. Infants’ mouth‐looking significantly increased over the first year of life with a significantly greater increase during ID song versus speech. This difference was early‐emerging (evident in the first 6 months of age) and sustained over the first year. Follow‐up analyses indicated specific properties inherent to ID song (e.g., slower tempo, reduced rhythmic variability) in part contribute to infants’ increased mouth‐looking, with effects increasing with age. The exaggerated and expressive facial features that naturally accompany ID song may make it a particularly effective context for modulating infants’ visual attention and supporting speech and language development in both typically developing infants and those with or at risk for communication challenges. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/SZ8xQW8h93A.Research Highlights Infants’ visual attention to adults’ mouths during infant‐directed speech has been found to support speech and language development. Infant‐directed (ID) song promotes mouth‐looking by infants to a greater extent than does ID speech across the first year of life. Features characteristic of ID song such as slower tempo, increased rhythmicity, increased audiovisual synchrony, and increased positive affect, all increase infants’ attention to the mouth. The effects of song on infants’ attention to the mouth are more prominent during the second half of the first year of life.

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The impact of the home musical environment on infants’ language development

Cited by 24 publications

References 48 publications

Music and language in the crib: Early cross‐domain effects of experience on categorical perception of prominence in spoken language

Music and language in the crib: Early cross‐domain effects of experience on categorical perception of prominence in spoken language

Signal in the noise: Dimensions of predictability in the home auditory environment are associated with neurobehavioral measures of early infant sustained attention

Infant‐directed song potentiates infants’ selective attention to adults’ mouths over the first year of life

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