Touching while listening: Does infants' haptic word processing speed predict vocabulary development?
Kayla Beaudin, Diane Poulin-Dubois, Pascal Zesiger
PMID 36268841WHAT IT FOUND
In bilingual toddlers, faster touch-screen word processing was linked to vocabulary at the same time and at 3;0, but it did not predict later vocabulary once early word knowledge was considered.
Key findings
01Faster haptic processing speed was linked to larger vocabulary at the same time and at 3;0, but it did not significantly predict later vocabulary when early vocabulary was included.
02Early decontextualized vocabulary predicted later vocabulary at 3;0, but not at 5;0.
03Among participants who completed the inhibition task, inhibitory control was associated with haptic processing speed in the non-dominant language, but not the dominant language.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample had high attrition across the three waves, and some correlational analyses had low power. Only one executive function task was used, and it was given only to the Montréal subsample; analyses included 44 participants. Later vocabulary was measured only as comprehension, not expressive vocabulary. Haptic response time was based only on correct touches; the average number of correct touches was 27 out of 41, with a range from 10 to 37, so some children had few usable trials. The study did not assess non-dominant vocabulary.
Declared interests
The supplied metadata lists NIH and non-U.S. government research support; no author conflict statement is included in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that faster haptic processing speed predicts later vocabulary growth in bilingual toddlers. The speed-vocabulary link was not significant once early vocabulary was controlled, and haptic speed did not predict later vocabulary in the regression.