Reverse-engineering language acquisition with child-centered long-form recordings

Language use in everyday life can be studied using light-weight, wearable recorders that collect long-form recordings, i.e. audio (including speech) over whole days. We first place this technique into the broader context of the current ways of studying both the input being received by children as well as children’s own language production, laying out the main advantages and drawbacks of long-form recordings. We then go on to argue that a unique advantage of long-form recordings is that they can fuel realistic models of early language acquisition that use speech for representing children’s input and/or for establishing production benchmarks. To enable the field to make the most of this unique empirical and conceptual contribution, we outline what this reverse-engineering approach from long-form recordings entails, why it is useful, and howto evaluate success.