Are you curious about how children’s understanding and use of language develops? We are working to find out! At the Child Language Lab at the CUNY Graduate Center in the heart of New York City we study young children’s earliest speech and language. Researchers at our lab are working to learn about how children learn to listen and understand their first words – and how they learn to use them. Children that come to our lab – or join an experiment via Zoom! – participate in fun, game-like procedures that provide us with important information about early language understanding.
Some of the questions we try to answer with our studies include:
- How do young children learn about the sounds that are used in speech? Do they hear the difference between all the sounds that are used in their language(s)?
- What do our earliest words look like: what do children know about the sounds in those words when they listen to language, and how do they produce words themselves?
- How do young children react to different types of speech, such as unusual pronunciations of words that they know, or different speaking styles?
- What does early language development look like in children that are learning more than one language, or in children with hearing impairment?
We are always looking for more families to help us with our studies!
Are you interested in participating? Please contact us to learn about our ongoing projects!