Clues cue the smooze: rhyme, pausing, and prediction help children learn new words from storybooks

Neural Signature of Rhyming Ability During Story Listening in Preschool-Age Children

PURPOSE

Rhyming is a phonological skill that typically emerges in the preschool age range. Prosody/rhythm processing involves right-lateralized temporal cortex, yet the neural basis of rhyming ability in young children is unclear. The study objective was to use functional MRI (fMRI) to quantify neural correlates of rhyming abilities in preschool-age children.

METHOD

Healthy pre-kindergarten child-parent dyads were recruited for a study visit including MRI and the Preschool and Primary Inventory of Phonological Awareness (PIPA) rhyme subtest. MRI included a fMRI task where the child listened to a rhymed and unrhymed story without visual stimuli. fMRI data were processed using the CONN functional connectivity (FC) toolbox, with FC computed between 132 regions of interest (ROI) across the brain. Associations between PIPA score and FC during the rhymed vs. unrhymed story were compared accounting for age, sex and maternal education.

RESULTS

45 children completed MRI (age 54+8 months, 37-63; 19M 26F). Median maternal education was college graduate. FC between ROIs in posterior Default Mode (imagery) and right-Fronto-Parietal (executive function) networks was more strongly positively associated with PIPA score during the rhymed compared to the unrhymed story (F(2,39) = 10.95, p-FDR = 0.043), as was FC between ROIs in right-sided language (prosody) and Dorsal Attention networks (F(2,39) = 9.85, p-FDR = 0.044).

CONCLUSIONS

Preschool-age children with better rhyming abilities had stronger FC between ROIs supporting attention and prosody, and also between ROIs supporting executive function and imagery, suggesting rhyme as a catalyst for attention, visualization and comprehension. These represent novel neural biomarkers of nascent phonological skills.

I remembered the chorm! Word learning abilities of children with and without phonological impairment

BACKGROUND

Children with phonological impairment present with pattern-based errors in their speech production. While some children have difficulties with speech perception and/or the establishment of robust underlying phonological representations, the nature of phonological impairment in children is still not well understood. Given that phonological and lexical development are closely linked, one way to better understand the nature of the problem in phonological impairment is to examine word learning abilities in children.

AIMS

To examine word learning and its relationship with speech perception, speech production and vocabulary knowledge in children aged 4-5 years. There were two variables of interest: speech production abilities ranging from phonological impairment to typical speech; and vocabulary abilities ranging from typical to above average ('lexically precocious').

METHODS & PROCEDURES

Participants were 49 Australian-English-speaking children aged 48-69 months. Children were each taught four novel non-words (out of a selection of eight) through stories, and word learning was assessed at 1 week post-initial exposure. Word learning was assessed using two measures: confrontation naming and story retell naming. Data were analysed by group using independent-samples t-tests and Mann-Whitney U-tests, and continuously using multiple linear regression.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

There was no significant difference in word learning ability of children with and without phonological impairment, but regardless of speech group, children with above average vocabulary had significantly better word learning abilities than children with average vocabulary. In multiple linear regression, vocabulary was the only significant predictor of variance in word learning ability.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

Children with phonological impairment can be lexically precocious and learn new words like their peers without phonological impairment. Contrary to expectations, vocabulary knowledge rather than expressive phonological ability explained variance in measures of word learning. These findings question an assumption that children with phonological impairment have underspecified phonological representations. They also highlight the heterogeneity among children with phonological impairment and the need to better understand the nature of their difficulty learning the phonological system of the ambient language.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS

What is already known on the subject There is limited research examining the word learning abilities of children with phonological impairment. Most previous research focuses on word properties such as phonotactic probability and neighbourhood density. Within the existing literature there are different reports and conclusions regarding the word learning abilities of children with phonological impairment and whether their word learning differs from that of children with typically developing speech. What this study adds to existing knowledge This study found that vocabulary was the strongest predictor of word learning across children with and without phonological impairment. There was no significant difference in word learning ability between children with and without phonological impairment. However, children with lexically precocious vocabulary abilities were significantly better at word learning than children with average vocabulary abilities. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Findings from this study support the importance of assessing and considering measures of word learning-including vocabulary-when working with children with phonological impairment. This study indicates that it is possible to use stories coupled with measures of confrontation naming and story retell to gain deeper insight into children's word learning abilities.

The challenge of screen mediated shared reading for children's learning and engagement

Introduction

Screen mediated shared reading (SMSR), which involves an adult reading a child a book through video-chat, is a recent development in shared reading. In this study, we investigated whether, as in in-person shared reading, children could learn new words from SMSR, and whether having a physical copy of the book to follow along with impacted children's novel word retention and engagement in this setting.

Method

Three- to 5-year-old participants (n = 34) were read an 8-page rhyming, "Meet the Friendly Monsters" story by a researcher over Zoom, via screen sharing an e-version of the story used in previous studies. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: SMSR with or without a paper copy of the book to follow along with. The session was recorded to measure children's engagement behaviors during the reading. Novel word learning from the story was measured with both a multiple choice identification test and a monster naming test, both administered immediately after the initial reading, then re-administered 10-14 days later. Engagement during the SMSR sessions was measured every 30-s on a scale of 1 (low engagement) to 5 (high engagement), and then averaged for each child.

Results

Results show that children overall performed slightly above chance on novel monster name retention from the SMSR. However, retention was not as strong as seen in other in-person shared reading studies using the same story. Additionally, while children remembered monster names with equal efficacy regardless of condition and level of engagement, there were still qualitative differences in the reading sessions depending on whether children had their own paper copy of the book to follow along with - in general, the 'with book' condition appeared to increase the challenges posed to children's attention during SMSR, potentially making the word learning task more difficult.

Discussion

The findings of this study have implications for how to approach shared reading with young children in new contexts with the use of emerging technology. We raise future research questions for a better understanding of best practices for screen mediated shared reading.

I Feel Less Blue When I Read With You: The Effect of Reading Aloud With a Child on Adult Readers' Affect

This study examined the potential benefits of shared reading with a child on adult readers’ mood. In two experiments, young adults were randomly assigned to either read storybooks with a child or to read the same books aloud alone. In both experiments, readers experienced more positive emotions than those who read the story aloud alone. In Experiment 1, the level of interactivity between the reader and child also positively correlated with readers’ experience of positive emotions. In Experiment 2, participants who read with a child aligned their own book preferences with those of the child. Overall, participants preferred the longer and more complex storybook as it gave more opportunities for the reader and child to interact. These findings support the hypothesis that simple read-aloud experiences are not only positive for children, but have the potential to also positively impact the mood of adult readers who share books with a child.