Infants’ sensitivity to nonadjacent vowel dependencies: The case of vowel harmony in Hungarian

Vowel harmony is a linguistic phenomenon whereby vowels within a word share one or several of their phonological features, constituting a nonadjacent, and thus challenging, dependency to learn. It can be found in a large number of agglutinating languages, such as Hungarian and Turkish, and it may apply both at the lexical level (i.e., within word stems) and at the morphological level (i.e., between stems and their affixes). Thus, it might affect both lexical and morphological development in infants whose native language has vowel harmony. The current study asked at what age infants learning an irregular harmonic language, Hungarian, become sensitive to vowel harmony within word stems. In a head-turn preference study, 13-month-old, but not 10-month-old, Hungarian-learning infants preferred listening to nonharmonic VCV (vowel–consonant–vowel) pseudowords over vowel-harmonic ones. A control experiment with 13-month-olds exposed to French, a nonharmonic language, showed no listening preference for either of the sequences, suggesting that this finding cannot be explained by a universal preference for nonharmonic sequences but rather reflects language-specific knowledge emerging between 10 and 13 months of age. We discuss the implications of this finding for morphological and lexical learning

Developing knowledge of nonadjacent dependencies

Characterizing the nature of linguistic representations and how they emerge during early development is a central goal in the cognitive science of language. One area in which this development plays out is in the acquisition of dependencies—relationships between co-occurring elements in a word, phrase, or sentence. These dependencies often involve multiple levels of representation and abstraction, built up as infants gain experience with their native language. The authors used the Headturn Preference Procedure to systematically investigate the early acquisition of 1 such dependency, the agreement between a subject and verb in French, at 6 different ages between 14 and 24 months. The results reveal a complex developmental trajectory that provides the first evidence that infants might indeed progress through distinct stages in the acquisition of this nonadjacent dependency. The authors discuss how changes in general cognition and representational knowledge (from reflecting surface statistics to higher-level morphological features) might account for their findings. These findings highlight the importance of studying language acquisition at close time intervals over a substantial age range

Toward a dimensional model of risk and protective factors influencing children's early cognitive, social, and emotional development during the COVID-19 pandemic

Variation in infants’ home environment is implicated in their cognitive and psycho-social development. The pandemic has intensified variations in home environments through exacerbating socioeconomic inequalities, and increasing psychological stressors for some families. This study investigates the effects of parental (predominantly maternal) mental health, enriching activities and screen use on 280 24- to 52-month-olds’ executive functions, internalising and externalising problems, and pro-social behaviour; with socioeconomic status and social support as contextual factors. Our results indicate that aspects of the home environment are differentially associated with children’s cognitive and psycho-social development. Parents who experienced sustained mental distress during the pandemic tended to report higher child externalising and internalising problems, and executive function difficulties at follow-up. Children who spent more time engaged in enriching activities with their parents showed stronger executive functions and social competence six months later. Screen use levels during the first year of the pandemic were not associated with outcomes. To mitigate the risk of persistent negative effects for this ‘pandemic generation’ of infants, our study highlights the importance of supporting parents’ mental health. As our results demonstrate the impact of social support on mental health, investing in support services and interventions promoting building support networks are likely to be beneficial

Converging evidence of underlying competence: Comprehension and production in the acquisition of Spanish subject-verb agreement

A surprising comprehension-production asymmetry in subject-verb (SV) agreement acquisition has been suggested in the literature, and recent research indicates that task-specific as well as language-specific features may contribute to this apparent asymmetry across languages. The present study investigates when during development children acquiring Mexican Spanish gain competence with 3rd-person SV agreement, testing production as well as comprehension in the same children aged between 3;6 and 5;7 years, and whether comprehension of SV agreement is modulated by the sentential position of the verb (i.e., medial vs. final position). Accuracy and sensitivity analyses show that comprehension performance correlates with SV agreement production abilities, and that comprehension of singular and plural third-person forms is not influenced by the sentential position of the agreement morpheme. Issues of the appropriate outcome measure and the role of structural familiarity in the development of abstract representations are discussed

Agarra, agarran: Evidence of early comprehension of subject-verb agreement in Spanish

​Studies across many languages (e.g., Dutch, English, Farsi, Spanish, Xhosa) have failed to show early acquisition of subject-verb agreement, while recent studies on French reveal acquisition by 30 months of age. Using a similar procedure as in previous French studies, the present study evaluated whether earlier comprehension of subject-verb agreement in (Mexican) Spanish can be revealed when task demands are lowered. Two experiments using a touch-screen pointing task tested comprehension of SV agreement by monolingual Spanish-speaking children growing up in Mexico City, between about 3 and 5 years of age. In Experiment 1, the auditory stimuli consisted of a transitive verb+pseudonoun object (e.g. agarra el micho ‘he throws the micho’ vs. agarran el duco ‘they throw the duco’); results failed to show early comprehension of SV agreement, replicating previous findings. In Experiment 2, the same stimuli were used, with the crucial difference that the word objeto ‘object’ replaced all pseudonouns; results revealed SV agreement comprehension as early as 41 to 50 months. Taken together, our findings show that comprehension at this age is facilitated when task demands are lowered, here by not requiring children to process pseudowords (even when these were not critical to the task). These findings hence underscore the importance of task-/stimulus-specific features when testing early morphosyntactic development, and suggest that previous results may have underestimated Spanish-speaking children’s competence

Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) during COVID-19 boosts growth in language and executive function

High-quality, centre-based education and care during the early years benefit cognitive development, especially in children from disadvantaged backgrounds. During the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns, access to early childhood education and care (ECEC) was disrupted. We investigate how this period affected the developmental advantages typically offered by ECEC. Using parent-report data from 189 families living in the UK, we explore associations between time spent in ECEC by 8-to-36-month-olds, their socioeconomic background, and their growth in language and executive functions between Spring and Winter 2020. Receptive vocabulary growth was greater in children who continued to attend ECEC during the period, with a stronger positive effect for children from less advantaged backgrounds. The growth of cognitive executive functions (CEFs) was boosted by ECEC attendance during the period, regardless of socioeconomic background. Our findings highlight the importance of high-quality ECEC for the development of key skills and for levelling socioeconomic inequalities

Not all babies are in the same boat: Exploring the effects of socioeconomic status, parental attitudes, and activities during the 2020 COVID- 19 pandemic on early executive functions

Early executive functions (EFs) lay the foundations for academic and social outcomes. In this parent- report study of 575 UK- based 8- to 36 month olds (218 fol-lowed longitudinally), we investigate how variation in the home environment before and during the 2020 pan-demic relates to infants’ emerging EFs. Parent- infant enriching activities were positively associated with infant Cognitive Executive Function (CEF) (encom-passing inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility). During the most- restrictive UK lockdown— but not subsequently— socioeconomic status (SES) was positively associated with levels of parent- infant enrich-ing activities. Parents who regard fostering early learn-ing, affection, and attachment as important were more likely to engage in parent- infant enriching activities, yet there was no significant pathway from parental at-titudes or SES to CEF via activities. Infant screen use was negatively associated with CEF and Regulation. Screen use fully mediated the effect of SES on CEF, and partially mediated the effect of SES on regulation

More frequent naps are associated with lower cognitive development in a cohort of 8–38‐month‐old children, during the Covid‐19 pandemic

Background How often a child naps, during infancy, is believed to reflect both intrinsic factors, that is, the need of an immature brain to consolidate information soon after it is acquired, and environmental factors. Difficulty accounting for important environmental factors that interfere with a child's sleep needs (e.g., attending daycare) has clouded our ability to understand the role of intrinsic drivers of napping frequency. Methods Here we investigate sleep patterns in association with two measures of cognitive ability, vocabulary size, measured with the Oxford-Communicative Development Inventory (N = 298) and cognitive executive functions (EF), measured with the Early EF Questionnaire (N = 463), in a cohort of 8–38-month-olds. Importantly, because of the social distancing measures imposed during the Covid-19 Spring 2020 lockdown, in the UK, measures of sleep were taken when children did not access daycare settings. Results We find that children with more frequent but shorter naps than expected for their age had lower concurrent receptive vocabularies, lower cognitive EF and a slower increase in expressive vocabulary from spring to winter 2020, when age, sex, and SES were accounted for. The negative association between vocabulary and frequency of naps became stronger with age. Conclusions These findings suggest that the structure of daytime sleep is an indicator of cognitive development and highlight the importance of considering environmental perturbations and age when investigating developmental correlates of sleep

Patrimonio natural y cultural de Tepotzotlán

324 páginas. Especialización en Diseño, Planificación y Conservación de Paisajes y Jardines.El presente documento muestra el trabajo realizado para la intervención paisajística en pueblo de Tepotzotlán. Al ser catalogado en el programa de pueblos mágicos dada su riqueza tangible e intangible; resulta relevante su estudio a fin de rescatar y/o enaltecer algunas de las virtudes que lo resguardan. La zona de intervención se enfocó esencialmente en el polígono patrimonial del centro histórico, los caminos constituidos a lo largo de Rio Chiquito y calles aledañas que conectan los tesoros patrimoniales de la zona. Dicho estudio fue abordado principalmente por grupos de trabajo interdisciplinario, conformados por alumnos de la especialidad en Paisajes y Jardines Históricos de la UAM Azcapotzalco. Se cotejaron 5 proyectos detonadores: Centro Histórico/Atrio de los Olivos, Par vial, Rio Chiquito, Camino Real de Lluvias y Acequia Real. Durante la primera etapa, se establecieron las limitaciones y potencialidades del sitio. Se recopiló información cualitativa y cuantitativa para la formulación y ejecución de un plan maestro que regirían los parámetros y objetivos en cada proyecto. El desarrollo conceptual y anteproyecto para cada zona de intervención, se reflejó en la segunda etapa de este proceso. Paralelamente, la elaboración de la propuesta de vegetación, las fichas de cada especie vegetal y la preparación de catálogos de paisaje, complementan el carácter de este trabajo. El proyecto realizado en Tepotzotlán: “Patrimonio Natural y Cultural De Tepotzotlán”, emerge, como el título del trabajo indica: desde la visión del rescate patrimonial, constituido por elementos materiales y naturales relevantes para la población local y todos sus visitantes. La última etapa comprende la puesta en marcha del proyecto ejecutivo, donde se plasmaron los detalles que dan cuerpo a cada elemento de las propuestas de diseño, la información necesaria para su construcción y la síntesis de toda la documentación consultada y elaborada, como sostén de diseño. En las siguientes páginas y capítulos, se explicará de manera extensa y particular: la metodología planteada y utilizada en el abordaje de cada proyecto. En general, se podrá observar la construcción de un trabajo paisajístico integral, llevado a cabo a lo largo de un año de esfuerzo y dedicación, vertidos en la presente tesis.Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (México)