Grasping the world through words: From action to linguistic production of verbs in early childhood

Abstract

We investigated whether the bodily-mediated production of verbs emerges earlier than verb recognition and oral production during early language acquisition. Children (aged 18-22, 23-27, 28-32, and 33-37 months) viewed animated pictures representing actions related to transitive and intransitive verbs and were asked to (i) orally indicate the verb presented, (ii) recognize the target verb among other verbs, and (iii) perform the actions corresponding to the target verb enunciated by the experimenter. Children 18-22 months showed a capacity to enact the verbs, while their recognition and oral production abilities were not comparably developed. Until 27 months of age, children produced more transitive than intransitive verbs across tasks. The gap between verb recognition and verb oral production was found in all ages tested. This is the first study to directly demonstrate that the ability to produce verbs, especially transitive verbs, via overt body actions emerges ontogenetically earlier than recognition and oral production.

When words lead to solutions: Executive function deficits in preschool children with specific language impairment

“…As child development theories, embodied cognition theories, and several experimental studies suggest, the development of language and motor abilities are strongly interconnected (Levi, Colonnello, Giacchè , Piredda, & Sogos, 2013;Glenberg & Gallese, 2012;Iverson & Braddock, 2011;Fischer & Zwaan, 2008;Piaget & Inhelder, 1966/1969. For example, at 2 years, typically developing children are able to perform specific actions when asked, even if they are unable to verbally produce the words representing those actions (Levi et al, 2013); however, at 3 years, children with SLI enact-express through the body-fewer action-related words than do typically developing children (Levi et al, 2014). In addition, children with SLI are less able to perform several motor-related tasks than are their typically developing peers (Iverson & Braddock, 2011;Hill et al, 1998).…”

Morphing Task: The Emotion Recognition Process in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Facial transformation from a neutral expression sends complex signals, which are converted into emotions [ 7 ]. The practical and clinical applications of automatic emotion recognition have been extensively tested and validated [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ].…”

“…The recognition of facial expression involves dynamic and multimodal phenomena. The transformation of the face from a neutral expression sends complex signals, which are converted into emotions [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ].…”

Building words on actions: Verb enactment and verb recognition in children with specific language impairment

“…During the second year of life, early production of verbs is mediated by body actions. Specifically, between 22 and 24 months, typically developing children are able to enact verbs, though their ability to recognize them by pointing and to verbally produce them is not yet fully developed (Levi, Colonnello, Giacche `, Piredda, & Sogos, 2013). Further, as van Batenburg-Eddes et al (2013) have recently demonstrated in a longitudinal study, neuromotor functioning at 12 weeks of age is a good predictor of receptive language at 1.5 years.…”

“…We observed 3-year-old children because, at this age, children have already acquired a large number of verbs, and this is the typical age for referral and diagnosis of SLI. As in early childhood the gap between the ability to enact and to recognize verbs disappears during the second year (Levi et al, 2013), we determined whether children who have SLI show a discrepancy between these abilities at an age when these abilities are typically aligned.…”