Mapping the Early Language Environment Using All-Day Recordings and Automated Analysis

• Published in: American journal of speech-language pathology Vol. 26; no. 2; pp. 248 - 265
• Main Authors: Gilkerson, Jill, Richards, Jeffrey A., Warren, Steven F., Montgomery, Judith K., Greenwood, Charles R., Kimbrough Oller, D., Hansen, John H. L., Paul, Terrance D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 01.05.2017
• Subjects: Autism; Automation; Caregivers; Child, Preschool; Children; Children & youth; Clinical Focus; Cognitive development; Communication; Educational Status; Families & family life; Female; Health aspects; Humans; Language acquisition; Language Development Disorders - diagnosis; Language Enrichment; Learning environment; Linguistic Input; Male; Mother-Child Relations; Native language acquisition; Natural language; Natural Language Processing; Preschool children; Semantics; Signal processing; Social aspects; Social Environment; Socioeconomic Factors; Socioeconomic status; Socioeconomics; Tape Recording - standards; Verbal Behavior; Vocabulary; Young Children
• ISSN: 1058-0360; 1558-9110; 1558-9110
• DOI: 10.1044/2016_AJSLP-15-0169

This research provided a first-generation standardization of automated language environment estimates, validated these estimates against standard language assessments, and extended on previous research reporting language behavior differences across socioeconomic groups. Typically developing children between 2 to 48 months of age completed monthly, daylong recordings in their natural language environments over a span of approximately 6-38 months. The resulting data set contained 3,213 12-hr recordings automatically analyzed by using the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) System to generate estimates of (a) the number of adult words in the child's environment, (b) the amount of caregiver-child interaction, and (c) the frequency of child vocal output. Child vocalization frequency and turn-taking increased with age, whereas adult word counts were age independent after early infancy. Child vocalization and conversational turn estimates predicted 7%-16% of the variance observed in child language assessment scores. Lower socioeconomic status (SES) children produced fewer vocalizations, engaged in fewer adult-child interactions, and were exposed to fewer daily adult words compared with their higher socioeconomic status peers, but within-group variability was high. The results offer new insight into the landscape of the early language environment, with clinical implications for identification of children at-risk for impoverished language environments.