Variability in the Language Input to Children Enhances Learning in a Treatment Context

Abstract

The results support the use of highly variable input in a therapeutic context to facilitate grammatical morpheme learning.

The Distribution of Talker Variability Impacts Infants’ Word Learning

“…In language learning, children and adults learn non-adjacent dependencies (between A and B in AXB) only when there are many intervening items (X's; Gómez, 2002). Children with Specific Language Impairment learn real-language non-adjacencies (e.g., is VERB-ing, as in "is jumping") better when multiple word types are used in teaching (Plante et al, 2014).…”

Nonadjacent Dependency Learning in Cantonese-Speaking Children With and Without a History of Specific Language Impairment

“…This was one of the reasons why the current study presented each string of syllables four times only. Comparing to previous studies which found successful generalization in children with language impairments (Plante et al, 2014) However, the 18-month-old infants in Gómez (2002) could discriminate the trained and untrained non-adjacent dependencies with only one presentation in the training phase.…”

“…High variability was also found to be important for atypically developing individuals in learning different grammatical structures (Plante et al, 2014;von Koss Torkildsen, Dailey, Aguilar, Gómez, & Plante, 2013) and for typically developing adults in learning noun gender subcategories in a foreign language (Eidsvåg, Austad, Plante, & Asbjørnsen, 2015). All these studies suggest a link between statistical learning and language acquisition and disorders although longitudinal evidence is still warranted.…”

“…Finally, variability needs to be considered. All of the studies discussed above have used 24 exemplars as high variability conditions in comparison with lower variability conditions (Gómez, 2002;Grunow et al, 2006;Hsu et al, 2014;Plante et al, 2014).…”

“…However, Plante et al (2014) trained children with language impairment on adjacent and non-adjacent dependencies and generalization was found when training involved variability as high as 24 exemplars. Hence, it is not clear whether impairments to statistical learning underlie individuals with language disorders' difficulties in learning and generalizing non-adjacent dependencies.…”