Children As Learners

Children As Learners

Victoria J. Molfese
University of Louisville

Babies are really smart!

• Newborns identify their mothers by smell
• Newborns identify their mothers’ voices
• Newborns identify familiar faces
• Newborns prefer human faces and voices to most other stimuli
  

How Did They Get So Smart?

• The brain is specialized for language acquisition at birth
  -Lenneberg thought the brain was undifferentiated at birth and needed experience to become specialized for language
  -Not rue!

Through the Miracle of Modern Technology

• Newborn infants have been found to respond to speech sounds differently than to nonspeech sounds
• There are differences in how each hemisphere of the newborn’s brain responds to sounds
  

How Can We Tell?

• Event Related Brain Potentials
  -Measure how the brain responds to sounds
  -Indicate responsiveness to sounds even in newborns whose behaviors are difficult to assess
  -Can be used all ages (newborns through adulthood)

Discrimination of Speech Sounds

• Newborns can discriminant differences in place of articulation
  
• Ba versus Ga
  
• Initial consonants were more important than the following vowel
  
• Bag versus Gag

Discrimination of Speech Sounds

• Discrimination of voicing contrasts
• Pa versus Ba
• Most newborns can discriminate and nearly all 2 month olds can
• Pat versus Bat

Why Do We Care?

• American English speakers possess perceptual boundaries that allow them to normally discriminate certain consonants (/b, d, g/) from other consonants (/p, t, k)
• These perceptual boundaries help us identify difference between words

Early Speech Perception

• Newborn and early infant responses to speech sounds can be used to predict future language skills
  
• Auditory Evoked Responses at birth are different in children who have high scores on language assessments at 3 years of age compared to those with low scores
  

So - Now What?

• How does the brain respond to language learning?
• How quickly does the brain response reflect word learning?
• What is reflected in the brain response?

Rachel, Where’s the " Gibu "?

• Dennis Molfese (1987) study of 14 month old infants.
  
• Infants were given experience associating a yellow wooden stick (called a "bidu") and a blue wooden cylinder (called a "gibu") with nonsense words
  
• Twice each day for 7 days, moms and infants played with the objects and the moms labeled the objects
  
• One week later infants returned and both behavioral and brain responses were measured.
  
• The object was shown while the infants heard either "gibu" or "bidu"
  
• Sometimes the object and sound matched and sometimes they were mismatched

Brain Responses

• There were differences in brain responses to correct pairings of objects and nonsense words compared to incorrect pairings.
  
• Major changes were reflected in the brain waves after only one week

Speech Perception, Language and Reading

• Research shows that speech perception skills at birth are related to later preschool language skills
  
• Research shows that early language skills are related to later reading skills
  
• Our research shows that speech perception is related to reading skills at 8 years of age
  
• Newborn brain waves reflect differences in reading skills when the children at 8 years old

Speech Perception and Reading

• Our longitudinal research with children studied from birth through age 8
  
• Children were groups according to reading scores:
  -Poor Readers (WRAT <90,>

- Dyslexic Readers (WRAT <90,>

-Normal Readers (WRAT >90, consistent with IQ)

Is It Really All Determined At Birth?

• If so much is present at birth and early in infancy, why go to school?
• Worrisome statements: "90% of brain development occurs by age 3 years"

The Environment Plays A Role

• In our studies of language skills and reading skills, brain responses to speech sounds contribute to predictions of scores, but the environment (SES and parenting skills and family activities) also contribute to the prediction of scores.

What Do We Know?Children As Learners

• Children come with certain sensitivities and capabilities due to biological factors

• Initial abilities later are influenced by maturation and by experiences in the environment

• Together these influences combine into a transactional system

What Do We Know?Children As Learners

• Children influence the environment in which they live and are in turn influenced by the environment.

• The learning environment must support the child’s learning and be cognizant of the child’s role in the learning process