COVID-19 first lockdown as a window into language acquisition: Associations between caregiver-child activities and vocabulary gains

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting closure of daycare centers worldwide, led to unprecedented changes in children’s learning environments. This period of increased time at home with caregivers, with limited access to external sources (e.g., daycares) provides a unique opportunity to examine the associations between the caregiver-child activities and children’s language development. The vocabularies of 1742 children aged8-36 months across 13 countries and 12 languages were evaluated at the beginning and end of the first lockdown period in their respective countries(from March to September 2020). Children who had less passive screen exposure and whose caregivers read more to them showed larger gains in vocabulary development during lockdown, after controlling for SES and other caregiver-child activities. Children also gained more words than expected (based on normative data) during lockdown; either caregivers were more aware of their child’s development or vocabulary development benefited from intense caregiver-child interaction during lockdown

Studi Bitontini

Studi Bitontini, rivista scientifica semestrale del Centro Ricerche di Storia e Arte-Bitonto, fondata nel 1969 e pubblicata regolarmente – con cadenza quadrimestrale fino al 1989 –, si propone quale sede privilegiata per ricerche, approfondimenti, confronti su temi, documenti, eventi, nonché problemi di tutela e gestione relativi alla storia, al paesaggio, al patrimonio tradizionale e alla cultura materiale della Puglia, con particolare riferimento al contesto di Bitonto. Nel numero 111-112 del 2021 sono stati affrontati i temi proposti dai contributi di seguito elencati, cui si aggiungono le sezioni dedicate alle recensioni e alla rassegna bibliografica nonché alle attività condotte dal Centro Ricerche di Storia e Arte-Bitonto e alle notizie di eventi di particolare importanza per il comprensorio considerato: • Il convento del Santissimo Salvatore di Lucera (Simone DE TROIA) • Carlo Rosa, le tele inedite del monastero delle Vergini a Bitonto (Nicola PICE) • Il filo di Quesi, la matita di Ferri e la punta di Bloemaert. Un quadro ‘a fili incollati’ alla Galleria Nazionale della Puglia (Cecilia MINENNA) • La costruzione delle mura angioine a Bitonto e un tale Pietro Pisano (Stefano MILILLO) • Il caso dello scultore frate Marcellino da Bitonto nella chiesa di San Donato a Ripacandida (Ruggero DORONZO).‘Studi Bitontini’, semi-annual journal of the ‘Research Center of History and Art-Bitonto’, founded in 1969 and published regularly – every four months until 1989 –, is proposed as forum for researches, analysis, comparisons on topics, documents, events, and problems of protection and management relating to the history, the landscape, the traditional heritage and the material culture of Apulia, with particular reference to the context of Bitonto. In number 111-112 of 2021, the Journal have covered the topics proposed by the contributions listed below, in addition to the sections dedicated both to the bibliographical reviews and the activities conducted by the ‘Research Center of History and Art-Bitonto’ and several information about important events for the Apulian countryside: • Il convento del Santissimo Salvatore di Lucera (Simone DE TROIA) • Carlo Rosa, le tele inedite del monastero delle Vergini a Bitonto (Nicola PICE) • Il filo di Quesi, la matita di Ferri e la punta di Bloemaert. Un quadro ‘a fili incollati’ alla Galleria Nazionale della Puglia (Cecilia MINENNA) • La costruzione delle mura angioine a Bitonto e un tale Pietro Pisano (Stefano MILILLO) • Il caso dello scultore frate Marcellino da Bitonto nella chiesa di San Donato a Ripacandida (Ruggero DORONZO)

Objective Measurement of Social Communication Behaviors in Children with Suspected ASD During the ADOS-2

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is defined by persistent disturbances of social communication, as well as repetitive patterns of behavior. ASD is identified on the basis of expert, but subjective, clinician judgment during assessments such as the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS-2). Quantification of key social behavioral features of ASD using objective measurements would enrich scientific understanding of the disorder. The current pilot study leveraged computer vision and audio signal processing to identify a key set of objective measures of children's social communication behaviors during the ADOS-2 (e.g., social gaze, social smile, vocal interaction) that were captured with adult-worn camera-embedded eyeglasses. Objective measurements of children's social communicative behaviors during the ADOS-2 showed relatively low levels of association with the examiner-adjudicated ADOS-2 scores. Future directions and implications for the use of objective measurements in diagnostic and treatment monitoring are discussed

Reciprocal Patterns of Peer Speech in Preschoolers with and without Hearing Loss

Children with hearing loss often attend inclusive preschool classrooms aimed at improving their spoken language skills. Although preschool classrooms are fertile environments for vocal interaction with peers, little is known about the dyadic processes that influence children's speech to one another and foster their language abilities and how these processes may vary in children with hearing loss. We used new objective measurement approaches to identify and quantify children's vocalizations during social contact, as determined by children's proximity and mutual orientation. The contributions of peer vocalizations to children's future vocalizations and language abilities were examined in oral language inclusion classrooms containing children with hearing loss who use hearing aids or cochlear implants and their typically hearing peers. Across over 600 hours of recorded vocal interactions of twenty-nine 2.5-3.5 year olds (16 girls) in three cohorts of children in a classroom, we found that vocalizations from each peer on a given observation predicted a child's vocalizations to that same peer on the subsequent observation. Children who produced more vocalizations to their peers had higher receptive and expressive language abilities, as measured by a standardized end-of-year language assessment. In fact, vocalizations peers had an indirect association with end-of-year language abilities as mediated by children's vocalizations peers. These findings did not vary as a function of hearing status. Overall, then, the results demonstrate the importance of dyadic peer vocal interactions for children's language use and abilities

Studi Bitontini

‘Studi Bitontini’, rivista scientifica semestrale del Centro Ricerche di Storia e Arte-Bitonto, fondata nel 1969 e pubblicata regolarmente – con cadenza quadrimestrale fino al 1989 –, si propone quale sede privilegiata per ricerche, approfondimenti, confronti su temi, documenti, eventi, nonché problemi di tutela e gestione relativi alla storia, al paesaggio, al patrimonio tradizionale e alla cultura materiale della Puglia, con particolare riferimento al contesto di Bitonto. Nel numero 109-110 del 2020 sono stati affrontati i temi proposti dai contributi di seguito elencati, cui si aggiungono le sezioni dedicate alle recensioni e alla rassegna bibliografica nonché alle attività condotte dal Centro Ricerche di Storia e Arte-Bitonto e alle notizie di eventi di particolare importanza per il comprensorio considerato: • Epigrafi medievali inedite da Bitonto (Federico Marinelli) • «Trazesse zafran della Puia, de Terra de Barri e de Terra de Otrento». Note sulla coltivazione e il commercio dello zafferano in Puglia e a Bitonto tra XV e XVI secolo (Vito Ricci) • «Musica in ogni genere di eterna memoria»: l’immagine di Traetta a quarant’anni dalla morte (con un’appendice su Giuseppe Verdi) (Raffaele Mellace) • La bottega di Nicolantonio Brudaglio di Andria e suoi allievi: Francesco Paolo Antolini e Giuseppe Santoniccolo (Emilio Mastropasqua) • A lezione da Claudio Leonardi. Un ricordo (Francesca Sivo).‘Studi Bitontini’, semi-annual journal of the ‘Research Center of History and Art-Bitonto’, founded in 1969 and published regularly – every four months until 1989 –, is proposed as forum for researches, analysis, comparisons on topics, documents, events, and problems of protection and management relating to the history, the landscape, the traditional heritage and the material culture of Apulia, with particular reference to the context of Bitonto. In number 109-110 of 2020, the Journal have covered the topics proposed by the contributions listed below, in addition to the sections dedicated both to the bibliographical reviews and the activities conducted by the ‘Research Center of History and Art-Bitonto’ and several information about important events for the Apulian countryside: • Epigrafi medievali inedite da Bitonto (Federico Marinelli) • «Trazesse zafran della Puia, de Terra de Barri e de Terra de Otrento». Note sulla coltivazione e il commercio dello zafferano in Puglia e a Bitonto tra XV e XVI secolo (Vito Ricci) • «Musica in ogni genere di eterna memoria»: l’immagine di Traetta a quarant’anni dalla morte (con un’appendice su Giuseppe Verdi) (Raffaele Melalce) • La bottega di Nicolantonio Brudaglio di Andria e suoi allievi: Francesco Paolo Antolini e Giuseppe Santoniccolo (Emilio Mastrocinque) • A lezione da Claudio Leonardi. Un ricordo (Francesca Sivo)

Computational Approaches to Understanding Interaction and Development

Audio-visual recording and location tracking produce enormous quantities of digital data with which researchers can document children’s everyday interactions in naturalistic settings and assessment contexts. Machine learning and other computational approaches can produce replicable, automated measurements of these big behavioral data. The economies of scale afforded by repeated automated measurements offer a potent approach to investigating linkages between real-time behavior and developmental change. In our work, automated measurement of audio from child-worn recorders—which quantify the frequency of child and adult speech and index its phonemic complexity—are paired with ultrawide radio tracking of children’s location and interpersonal orientation. Applications of objective measurement indicate the influence of adult behavior in both expert ratings of attachment behavior and ratings of autism severity, suggesting the role of dyadic factors in these “child” assessments. In the preschool classroom, location/orientation measures provide data-driven measures of children’s social contact, fertile ground for vocal interactions. Both the velocity of children’s movement toward one another and their social contact with one another evidence homophily: children with autism spectrum disorder, other developmental disabilities, and typically developing children were more likely to interact with children in the same group even in inclusive preschool classrooms designed to promote interchange between all children. In the vocal domain, the frequency of peer speech and the phonemic complexity of teacher speech predict the frequency and phonemic complexity of children’s own speech over multiple timescales. Moreover, children’s own speech predicts their assessed language abilities across disability groups, suggesting how everyday interactions facilitate development

Early Interaction New Approaches

Early interaction is a dynamic, emotional process in which infants influence and are influenced by caregivers and peers. This chapter reviews new developments in behavior imaging—objective quantification of human action—and computational approaches to the study of early emotional interaction and development. Advances in the automated measurement and modeling of human emotional behavior—including objective measurement of facial expressions, machine-learning approaches to detecting interaction and emotion, and electrophysiological measurements of emotional signals—provide new insights into how interaction occurs. Furthermore, advances in automated measurement and modeling can be applied to the study of atypical development, contributing to our understanding of, for example, social affective behaviors in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The chapter concludes by posing questions for future directions of the field of computational approaches to emotion

Objective measurement of vocalizations in the assessment of autism spectrum disorder symptoms in preschool age children

Assessment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) relies on expert clinician observation and judgment, but objective measurement tools have the potential to provide additional information on ASD symptom severity. Diagnostic evaluations for ASD typically include the autism diagnostic observation schedule (ADOS-2), a semi-structured assessment composed of a series of social presses. The current study examined associations between concurrent objective features of child vocalizations during the ADOS-2 and examiner-rated autism symptom severity. The sample included 66 children (49 male; M = 40 months, SD = 10.58) evaluated in a university-based clinic, 61 of whom received an ASD diagnosis. Research reliable administration of the ADOS-2 provided social affect (SA) and restricted and repetitive behavior (RRB) calibrated severity scores (CSS). Audio was recorded from examiner-worn eyeglasses during the ADOS-2 and child and adult speech were differentiated with LENA SP Hub. PRAAT was used to ascertain acoustic features of the audio signal, specifically the mean fundamental vocal frequency (F0) of LENA-identified child speech-like vocalizations (those with phonemic content), child cry vocalizations, and adult speech. Sphinx-4 was employed to estimate child and adult phonological features indexed by the average consonant and vowel count per vocalization. More than a quarter of the variance in ADOS-2 RRB CSS was predicted by the combination of child phoneme count per vocalization and child vocalization F0. Findings indicate that both acoustic and phonological features of child vocalizations are associated with expert clinician ratings of autism symptom severity. LAY SUMMARY: Determination of the severity of autism spectrum disorder is based in part on expert (but subjective) clinician observations during the ADOS-2. Two characteristics of child vocalizations-a smaller number of speech-like sounds per vocalization and higher pitched vocalizations (including cries)-were associated with greater autism symptom severity. The results suggest that objectively ascertained characteristics of children's vocalizations capture variance in children's restricted and repetitive behaviors that are reflected in clinician severity indices