MAD Colloquium: Language input and intake in early word learning

Abstract

Children learn language through exposure, and so as researchers we devote a great deal of attention to understanding the quantity and characteristics of the language input produced by their caregivers. But the input isn’t veridically represented in the child’s mind; we also have to consider their intake, or what they are able to absorb from the input. I will present some novel word learning studies exploring the linguistic contexts that best support children’s intake, and on some studies looking at the characteristics of parent language input and how well it is (or isn’t) tuned to support intake.