scholarly journals Exploring Mothers’ Experience of a Linguistic Feedback Technology for Children at Risk of Poor Language Development: Qualitative Pilot Study

10.2196/27049 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. e27049
Author(s):  
Lydia So ◽  
Erin Miller ◽  
John Eastwood
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Children At Risk ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Caregiver Language ◽  
Development Outcomes ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
Language Output

Background The early language environment is important for language development and a child’s life-course trajectory. Risk factors associated with poor language development outcomes in children include maternal anxiety and depression, low educational attainment, substance misuse, and low socioeconomic status. Language Environment Analysis (LENA) is a wearable technology designed to promote caregivers’ engagement in supporting their children’s language development. LENA provides quantitative linguistic feedback, which has been shown to improve caregiver language output, thus enhancing a child’s language environment. There is limited research on the uptake of this technology by families with developmentally at-risk children. Objective This qualitative study aims to explore the conditions under which mothers with children at risk of poor developmental outcomes are willing to adopt the use of LENA to monitor and improve caregiver language output. Methods Using a qualitative interpretive design, semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 8 mothers. Participants were recruited purposively to select the maximal variation of socioeconomic and ethnodemographic backgrounds. The transcribed interview data were analyzed thematically and interpretatively. Themes were mapped abductively to an extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, which included contextual factors for LENA acceptance. Results Factors that influenced the intention to use LENA included both technology-specific acceptance factors and contextual factors. Technology acceptance themes included reassurance, feeling overwhelmed, and trust. These themes were mapped to performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence. Contextual themes included emergent success and the intrusion of past difficulties. These were mapped to parenting self-efficacy and perceived risk. The theme of building on success described behavioral intention. Mothers were more likely to adopt LENA when the technology was viewed as acceptable, and this was influenced by parenting self-efficacy and perceived risk. Conclusions LENA is a technology that is acceptable to mothers with children who are at risk of poor language development outcomes. Further studies are needed to establish LENA’s effectiveness as an adjunct to strategies to enrich a child’s early language environment.

scholarly journals Exploring Mothers’ Experience of a Linguistic Feedback Technology for Children at Risk of Poor Language Development: Qualitative Pilot Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lydia So ◽  
Erin Miller ◽  
John Eastwood
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Children At Risk ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Caregiver Language ◽  
Development Outcomes ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
Language Output

BACKGROUND The early language environment is important for language development and a child’s life-course trajectory. Risk factors associated with poor language development outcomes in children include maternal anxiety and depression, low educational attainment, substance misuse, and low socioeconomic status. Language Environment Analysis (LENA) is a wearable technology designed to promote caregivers’ engagement in supporting their children’s language development. LENA provides quantitative linguistic feedback, which has been shown to improve caregiver language output, thus enhancing a child’s language environment. There is limited research on the uptake of this technology by families with developmentally at-risk children. OBJECTIVE This qualitative study aims to explore the conditions under which mothers with children at risk of poor developmental outcomes are willing to adopt the use of LENA to monitor and improve caregiver language output. METHODS Using a qualitative interpretive design, semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 8 mothers. Participants were recruited purposively to select the maximal variation of socioeconomic and ethnodemographic backgrounds. The transcribed interview data were analyzed thematically and interpretatively. Themes were mapped abductively to an extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, which included contextual factors for LENA acceptance. RESULTS Factors that influenced the intention to use LENA included both technology-specific acceptance factors and contextual factors. Technology acceptance themes included reassurance, feeling overwhelmed, and trust. These themes were mapped to performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence. Contextual themes included emergent success and the intrusion of past difficulties. These were mapped to parenting self-efficacy and perceived risk. The theme of building on success described behavioral intention. Mothers were more likely to adopt LENA when the technology was viewed as acceptable, and this was influenced by parenting self-efficacy and perceived risk. CONCLUSIONS LENA is a technology that is acceptable to mothers with children who are at risk of poor language development outcomes. Further studies are needed to establish LENA’s effectiveness as an adjunct to strategies to enrich a child’s early language environment.

scholarly journals Variations in the Home Language Environment and Early Language Development in Rural China

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 2671
Author(s):  
Yue Ma ◽  
Laura Jonsson ◽  
Tianli Feng ◽  
Tyler Weisberg ◽  
Teresa Shao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Child Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
Conversational Turns ◽  
Home Language Environment

The home language environment is critical to early language development and subsequent skills. However, few studies have quantitatively measured the home language environment in low-income, developing settings. This study explores variations in the home language environment and child language skills among households in poor rural villages in northwestern China. Audio recordings were collected for 38 children aged 20–28 months and analyzed using Language Environment Analysis (LENA) software; language skills were measured using the MacArthur–Bates Mandarin Communicative Developmental Inventories expressive vocabulary scale. The results revealed large variability in both child language skills and home language environment measures (adult words, conversational turns, and child vocalizations) with 5- to 6-fold differences between the highest and lowest scores. Despite variation, however, the average number of adult words and conversational turns were lower than found among urban Chinese children. Correlation analyses did not identify significant correlations between demographic characteristics and the home language environment. However, the results do indicate significant correlations between the home language environment and child language skills, with conversational turns showing the strongest correlation. The results point to a need for further research on language engagement and ways to increase parent–child interactions to improve early language development among young children in rural China.

scholarly journals Language Development in Children at Risk for Severe Expressive Language Delay.

1994 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-254
Author(s):  
Naomi Iizuka ◽  
Tsuneo Satake ◽  
Junko Itoh ◽  
Takeshi Tohkawa
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Expressive Language ◽  
Language Delay ◽  
Children At Risk ◽  
Expressive Language Delay

scholarly journals Early Development of Neural Speech Encoding Depends on Age but not Native Language Status: Evidence from Lexical Tone

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-59
Author(s):  
Nikolay Novitskiy ◽  
Akshay R Maggu ◽  
Ching Man Lai ◽  
Peggy H Y Chan ◽  
Kay H Y Wong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Auditory Pathway ◽  
Lexical Tone ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Speech Encoding ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
Long Latency ◽  
Language Environment

Abstract We investigated the development of early-latency and long-latency brain responses to native and non-native speech to shed light on the neurophysiological underpinnings of perceptual narrowing and early language development. Specifically, we postulated a two-level process to explain the decrease in sensitivity to non-native phonemes towards the end of infancy. Neurons at the earlier stages of the ascending auditory pathway mature rapidly during infancy facilitating the encoding of both native and non-native sounds. This growth enables neurons at the later stages of the auditory pathway to assign phonological status to speech according to the infant’s native language environment. To test this hypothesis, we collected early- latency and long-latency neural responses to native and non-native lexical tones from 85 Cantoneselearning children aged between 23 days and 24 months and 16 days. As expected, a broad range of presumably subcortical early-latency neural encoding measures grew rapidly and substantially during the first two years for both native and non-native tones. By contrast, longlatency cortical electrophysiological changes occurred on a much slower scale and showed sensitivity to nativeness at around six months. Our study provided a comprehensive understanding of early language development by revealing the complementary roles of earlier and later stages of speech processing in the developing brain.

Child Maltreatment: Optimizing Recognition and Reporting by School Nurses

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 192-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen S. Jordan ◽  
Peggy MacKay ◽  
Stephanie J. Woods
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Child Maltreatment ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Educational Intervention ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Intervention Program ◽  
School Nurse ◽  
School Nurses ◽  
Comfort Level ◽  
Children At Risk

School nurses perform a crucial role in the prevention, identification, intervention, and reporting of child maltreatment. The purpose of this article is to share the highlights of a research project conducted to (a) examine the effectiveness of an educational intervention program in increasing the knowledge, confidence, and self-efficacy in school nurses regarding children at risk of maltreatment; and (b) discover issues surrounding the comfort level engaging with children, communicating with teachers and other personnel, and ethical issues. The study consisted of two phases. Phase 1 was a face-to-face evidenced-based educational intervention. Focus groups implemented in Phase 2 discovered specific concerns of school nurses. Results indicate a significant increase in school nurse knowledge, confidence, and self-efficacy related to children at risk. Five themes were identified from the focus groups: the importance of interprofessional collaboration, identifiers of children at risk of maltreatment, the role of the school nurse as a mentor and leader, the importance of advancing one’s knowledge and skill set, and constraints faced by school nurses.

scholarly journals The Natural Language Environment of 9-Month-Old Infants in Sweden and Concurrent Association With Early Language Development

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Nyberg ◽  
Mary Rudner ◽  
Ulrika Birberg Thornberg ◽  
Felix-Sebastian Koch ◽  
Rachel Barr ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Natural Language ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
Language Environment
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document