Some things you might want to know about child language research...
What sort of activities will I take part in?
Eye-tracking measures
These allow us to look at what words and sentences your child understands at different ages. The
measure exploits the fact that children tend to look at pictures that match the words and sentences they
hear. Your child will sit in front of a video screen and will listen to sentences (e.g. look at the doggie!)
while looking at pictures or short video clips (typically 6-8 seconds long). Using a video recorder or an
eye tracker, we track where your child looks in the picture/video as the sentence unfolds. This tells
us whether your child understands the words and sentences they are hearing. As you can
see, your child does not need to wear anything on their head for us to track their eye movements.
The task takes about 15 minutes. You can watch some examples of similar experiments here and here.
These allow us to look at what words and sentences your child understands at different ages. The
measure exploits the fact that children tend to look at pictures that match the words and sentences they
hear. Your child will sit in front of a video screen and will listen to sentences (e.g. look at the doggie!)
while looking at pictures or short video clips (typically 6-8 seconds long). Using a video recorder or an
eye tracker, we track where your child looks in the picture/video as the sentence unfolds. This tells
us whether your child understands the words and sentences they are hearing. As you can
see, your child does not need to wear anything on their head for us to track their eye movements.
The task takes about 15 minutes. You can watch some examples of similar experiments here and here.
Artificial Grammar Learning (AGL)
This task allows us to look at whether your child can discriminate between different types of speech. We
use two loudspeakers—placed to the left and right of a central fixation point—with a light above each. In a
training phase, we will train your child to learn that when a light above a speaker is flashing, they will hear
speech from that speaker as long as they keep looking at that speaker. In the test phase, the familiar
speech from the training phase will alternate with a different audio signal (e.g., different languages or
familiar versus novel words from a training session). Because your child controls the duration of playback,
we can measure how long they listen to each speech stream. This allows us to see which speech your child
prefers. The task takes about 15 minutes. You can watch an example of a similar type of experiment here.
This task allows us to look at whether your child can discriminate between different types of speech. We
use two loudspeakers—placed to the left and right of a central fixation point—with a light above each. In a
training phase, we will train your child to learn that when a light above a speaker is flashing, they will hear
speech from that speaker as long as they keep looking at that speaker. In the test phase, the familiar
speech from the training phase will alternate with a different audio signal (e.g., different languages or
familiar versus novel words from a training session). Because your child controls the duration of playback,
we can measure how long they listen to each speech stream. This allows us to see which speech your child
prefers. The task takes about 15 minutes. You can watch an example of a similar type of experiment here.
Standardised measures
These are widely-used measures of children’s development produced by publishing companies such as Pearson Assessment. The measures
typically take between 20 and 45 minutes to complete. However, they are only suitable for older children so we won’t be using any of these
until your child is much older. The ones you might see us use are:
· CELF-Preschool 2 UK: a general language measure for children aged 36 months and above. The CELF simply consists of some games
(e.g. pointing at pictures, labelling objects) that your child will take part in with one of the study team.
· BPVS: a test of vocabulary for children aged 36 months and above. The BPVS simply requires children to point at pictures in response
to questions such as, “Where is the dog?”.
· TROG-2: a test of grammar for children aged 48 months and above. Just like the CELF this simply requires your child to take part in
some games with one of our study team.
These are widely-used measures of children’s development produced by publishing companies such as Pearson Assessment. The measures
typically take between 20 and 45 minutes to complete. However, they are only suitable for older children so we won’t be using any of these
until your child is much older. The ones you might see us use are:
· CELF-Preschool 2 UK: a general language measure for children aged 36 months and above. The CELF simply consists of some games
(e.g. pointing at pictures, labelling objects) that your child will take part in with one of the study team.
· BPVS: a test of vocabulary for children aged 36 months and above. The BPVS simply requires children to point at pictures in response
to questions such as, “Where is the dog?”.
· TROG-2: a test of grammar for children aged 48 months and above. Just like the CELF this simply requires your child to take part in
some games with one of our study team.
Questionnaires
While your child is still too young to take part in the standardised measures above, we will ask you to fill in questionnaires about their
language development instead. These questionnaires take between 5 and 20 minutes to complete. We will use:
· The UK-CDI: a checklist of common words and gestures used by children aged 8-18 months
· The Lincoln-CDI: a checklist of common words and gestures used by children 16-30 months.
· The Family Questionnaire: questionnaire of questions about your child’s health and family background.
While your child is still too young to take part in the standardised measures above, we will ask you to fill in questionnaires about their
language development instead. These questionnaires take between 5 and 20 minutes to complete. We will use:
· The UK-CDI: a checklist of common words and gestures used by children aged 8-18 months
· The Lincoln-CDI: a checklist of common words and gestures used by children 16-30 months.
· The Family Questionnaire: questionnaire of questions about your child’s health and family background.
Where will all of this happen?
We will ask you to come to the Liverpool Language Lab at the University of Liverpool for a study visit.
We will ask you to come to the Liverpool Language Lab at the University of Liverpool for a study visit.
What will I receive?
On most occasions, you will receive a gift of £10 as a thank you for participating.
On most occasions, you will receive a gift of £10 as a thank you for participating.
