Characterization of children's verbal input in a forager-farmer population using long-form audio recordings and diverse input definitions |
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| Authors: | Camila Scaff Marisa Casillas Jonathan Stieglitz Alejandrina Cristia |
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| Institution: | 1. University of Zurich, Institute of Evolutionary Medicine (IEM), Zurich, Switzerland;2. University of Chicago, Comparative Human Development, Chicago, Illinois, USA;3. Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST), Toulouse, France;4. PSL University, Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et de Psycholinguistique (ENS, EHESS, CNRS, DEC), Paris, France |
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| Abstract: | There is little systematically collected quantitative empirical data on how much linguistic input children in small-scale societies encounter, with some estimates suggesting low levels of directed speech. We report on an ecologically-valid analysis of speech experienced over the course of a day by young children (N = 24, 6–58 months old, 33% female) in a forager-horticulturalist population of lowland Bolivia. A permissive definition of input (i.e., including overlapping, background, and non-linguistic vocalizations) leads to massive changes in terms of input quantity, including a quadrupling of the estimate for overall input compared to a restrictive definition (only near and clear speech), while who talked to and around a focal child is relatively stable across input definitions. We discuss implications of these results for theoretical and empirical research into language acquisition. |
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