Research
The Infant & Child Development Laboratory
Undergraduate MARC Scholar Research Assistant (August 2022 - Present)
I'm currently working as a MARC undergraduate research assistant at The Infant and Child Development Lab, directed by Margaret Friend, Ph.D. The lab is focused on changes in language and cognition over time during the first five years of life. The purpose in studying these changes is 1) to understand how early skills predict development over time, 2) to understand the mechanisms that support development at any one point in time (say at age two or four) and how these might differ over time and 3) to understand universal and culture-specific patterns in development and the mechanisms that support it. The research is firmly rooted in the tradition of public health as it pertains to children. We are interested in the interplay between language and thinking and in how these together support children in developing literacy skills that prepare them for school. We study children from 18 months to 5 years of age and focus much of our work on children who are learning to speak English, Spanish, or both. The lab is currently studying the correction between the Covid-19 pandemic and language.
Most Recent Work (Cognitive Development Society, March 2024)
The Spanish and English Web-CCT: Dual Language Trends in Bilingual Spanish-English Speaking Children
Abstract: Early vocabulary is fundamental to children's language and cognitive development. During the first five years, children establish word-to-world mappings that support literacy and future outcomes. Following the original Computerized Comprehension Task (CCT; Friend & Keplinger, 2003, 2008) and its expansions (Bleses et al., 2021 in Denmark, Gillen et al., 2021 in the UK, Lo et al., 2021, in Norway, and Rosemberg & Alam, 2021 in Argentina), we have extended this assessment to create the English and Spanish Web-CCTs. These are automated two-alternative forced-choice procedures with target-distractor pairs matched on difficulty, semantic category, word class, and salience. The assessment estimates vocabulary from 18 to 60 months of age.
We present psychometric properties for the English and Spanish Web-CCTs: convergent validity with the Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test (r11=.877, p=<.001, r29=.745, p=<.001, respectively), test-retest reliability (r10=.759, p=.007, r24=.522, p=.007) and internal consistency (α = .973, α = .985). In this poster, we explore relations between age and vocabulary acquisition on each measure and, because previous findings suggest that Spanish skills become weaker as children’s English skills develop with age, we explore trends in relative language exposure and proficiency over time.
Submission advances diversity: It’s crucial to track early language development given its importance to long-term developmental outcomes. However, few vocabulary assessments exist for Spanish-speaking children beyond the first two years of life. Some of these are direct translations from English jeopardizing their cultural relevance and developmental validity. Finally, lab-based administration reduces access for Spanish-speaking participants who are disproportionately lower-income and may not be able to visit the lab due to economic hardship. The Spanish Web-CCT addresses these limitations.
By estimating vocabulary from 18 to 60 months of age, the Spanish-CCT improves the age range of assessment. Because it is web-based, it can be completed at home on a computer, tablet, or cellphone, bringing assessment to scale for diverse Spanish-speaking children. Spanish Web-CCT items were selected from the Inventarios del Desarrollo de Habilidades Comunicativas: Palabras y Enunciados (IDHC), the IDHC-III, and an Argentinian Corpus. We focused primarily on words universally known by children learning Spanish across regions and dialects. All items were reviewed by native Mexican Spanish speakers for cultural relevance. This selection process yields culturally appropriate items, resulting in a more inclusive assessment for Spanish speakers. Together, these factors allow marginalized communities equitable opportunities to obtain accessible and accurate vocabulary assessment.