The Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES) Project seeks to broaden and deepen our scientific understanding of language development by providing new ways of analyzing real world face-to-face interactions. The computational tools that were developed in the previous phases of the project now constitute the primary methodological basis for new empirical research on the development of spontaneous use of a first language. This work has examined all aspects of language development, including word learning, sound learning, grammatical development, and communicative development. All of these methods and data sets are provided without charge to researchers. Moreover, the database that has been collected using these tools is now the largest spoken language database available anywhere. However, we can achieve still greater efficiency and analytic precision by building even more powerful computational tools. The next phase of this project will develop new techniques to support analytic methods in the study of language development. These methods include rapid computer-assisted transcription of interactions, automatic analysis of words into their component parts, automatic linkage of words into syntactic structures, a simple user interface for searching for patterns, a system for analyzing links between speech and gesture, web-based support for collaborative commentary between research groups, and methods for moving data between different programs for alternative analyses. In addition, we will promote the use of these programs by constructing new web-based teaching tools, a new user interface, and conducting workshops and presentations at conferences.

Public Health Relevance

To help children with language delays and disorders, we need to understand the basic facts about language learning. The CHILDES project does this by allowing rapid searching for developmental patterns across a large database of transcripts from children learning language. These tools can also be applied to other health- related areas, including the study of adult language disorders, such as aphasia and dysarthria.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD023998-22
Application #
7752854
Study Section
Language and Communication Study Section (LCOM)
Program Officer
Mccardle, Peggy D
Project Start
1988-02-01
Project End
2014-01-31
Budget Start
2010-02-01
Budget End
2011-01-31
Support Year
22
Fiscal Year
2010
Total Cost
$313,479
Indirect Cost
Name
Carnegie-Mellon University
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
052184116
City
Pittsburgh
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
15213
Gauvain, Mary; Perez, Susan M; Reisz, Z (2018) Stability and change in mother-child planning over middle childhood. Dev Psychol 54:571-585
MacWhinney, Brian; Fromm, Davida; Rose, Yvan et al. (2018) Fostering human rights through TalkBank. Int J Speech Lang Pathol 20:115-119
Byun, Tara McAllister; Rose, Yvan (2016) Analyzing Clinical Phonological Data Using Phon. Semin Speech Lang 37:85-105
Rose, Yvan; Stoel-Gammon, Carol (2015) Using PhonBank and Phon in studies of phonological development and disorders. Clin Linguist Phon 29:686-700
Brooks, Patricia J; Seiger-Gardner, Liat; Obeid, Rita et al. (2015) Phonological Priming With Nonwords in Children With and Without Specific Language Impairment. J Speech Lang Hear Res 58:1210-23
Arbib, Michael A; Bonaiuto, James J; Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Ina et al. (2014) Action and language mechanisms in the brain: data, models and neuroinformatics. Neuroinformatics 12:209-25
Macwhinney, Brian (2014) What we have learned. J Child Lang 41 Suppl 1:124-31
Albert, Aviad; MacWhinney, Brian; Nir, Bracha et al. (2013) The Hebrew CHILDES corpus: transcription and morphological analysis. Lang Resour Eval 47:973-1005
Miyata, Susanne; MacWhinney, Brian; Otomo, Kiyoshi et al. (2013) Developmental Sentence Scoring for Japanese (DSSJ). First Lang 33:200-216
Andreu, Llorenç; Sanz-Torrent, Mònica; Olmos, Joan Guàrdia et al. (2013) The formulation of argument structure in SLI: an eye-movement study. Clin Linguist Phon 27:111-33

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