Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR最新文献

{"title":"Prelinguistic Communication Complexity of Children With Neurogenetic Syndromes.","authors":"Lisa R Hamrick, Olivia Boorom, Katiana Estrada, Nancy Brady, Bridgette Kelleher","doi":"10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00477","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00477","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>Communication complexity and communicative function are important features of prelinguistic communication that are related to later language outcomes. However, little is known about how these early prelinguistic features present in young children with neurogenetic syndromes (NGS). This study aims to characterize prelinguistic complexity and function of children with three NGS: Angelman syndrome (AS), Down syndrome (DS) and fragile X syndrome (FXS).</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>Seventy-two infants aged 5-31 months (16 AS, 24 DS, 13 FXS, 19 low-risk control [LRC] infants) completed a parent-child interaction from which their prelinguistic communication was coded using the Communication Complexity Scale. Communication complexity (degree to which eye gaze, gestures, and vocalizations are integrated) and function (communication for the purposes of joint attention or behavior regulation) were compared among groups.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The DS group used the most complex communication of the syndrome groups and in many ways demonstrated similar profiles to the LRC group. The AS and FXS groups exhibited the lowest overall communication complexity when covarying age, but their levels of complexity were similar to those of the LRC group when accounting for developmental level. The DS group showed a relative strength in communication for the purposes of behavior regulation. The FXS group demonstrated the lowest likelihood of using communication for the purposes of joint attention, while the AS group exhibited the lowest likelihood of communicating for the purposes of behavior regulation.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Children with NGS exhibit nuanced differences in prelinguistic communication profiles that indicate unique strengths and areas of need. Additional work is needed to disentangle the effects of age and developmental level on prelinguistic communication profiles and to explore how these profiles are related to later language outcomes. Continuing to explore cross-group differences in prelinguistic communication may facilitate more targeted intervention and sensitive phenotyping among children with rare NGS.</p>","PeriodicalId":520690,"journal":{"name":"Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR","volume":" ","pages":"1-18"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144645210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Role of Auditory and Visual Modality in Perception of Focus in Mandarin Chinese.","authors":"Shanpeng Li, Yihan Wu, Sasha Calhoun, Mengzhu Yan","doi":"10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00664","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00664","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>Speech perception is a complex process that involves multiple sensory modalities. Despite our intuitions of speech as something we hear, accumulating evidence has shown that speech perception is not solely dependent on the auditory modality. While it is well established that auditory and visual cues can both help listeners perceive focus, the latter is not established in Mandarin, and the relative contribution of these cues is not established at all. The current study investigated Mandarin listeners' integration of auditory and visual cues in the interpretation of focus in noise-degraded speech, through a question-answer appropriateness rating experiment.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>To explore the effectiveness and relative contribution of auditory and visual modality in the interpretation of Mandarin focus, participants did a question-answer appropriateness rating task involving subject focus, object focus, and broad focus. All the question-answer pairs were constructed in three modalities: audio only, visual only, and audiovisual. They were instructed to rate the appropriateness of the question-answer pairs. A babble noise was superimposed on the audio track for the audio only and audiovisual conditions.</p><p><strong>Results and conclusions: </strong>Although auditory cues via prosodic prominence were an effective cue to interpreting focus, visual cues were proven more effective, at least with degraded audio. Overall, this research contributes to our understanding of the interaction between linguistic cues and sensory information during language comprehension, widens the range of languages included in this body of research, and provides important implications for future studies on focus processing in various linguistic contexts and communication settings. This, in turn, will deepen our understanding of the multimodal nature of language comprehension.</p>","PeriodicalId":520690,"journal":{"name":"Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR","volume":" ","pages":"1-18"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144612782","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Treating Non-Oral Compensatory Misarticulations in Children With a Cleft Palate: A Randomized Controlled Trial on the Effect of Combined Phonetic-Phonological Intervention.","authors":"Cassandra Alighieri, Fien Allemeersch, Febe Vandewiele, Kristiane Van Lierde","doi":"10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00800","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00800","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>This study compared the effects of motor-phonetic and combined phonetic-phonological intervention on the speech, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and parent-reported intelligibility in Dutch-speaking children with cleft (lip and) palate (CP ± L) and non-oral compensatory misarticulations (CMAs).</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>Fourteen children with CP ± L were randomly assigned to one of two interventions, that is, motor-phonetic intervention (<i>n</i> = 7, <i>M</i>_age = 7.39 years) or combined phonetic-phonological intervention (<i>n</i> = 7, <i>M</i>_age = 6.86 years) stratified by age and gender. Intervention was provided with a total duration of 1 week, a dose frequency of two sessions per day, and a session duration of 1 hr and targeted non-oral CMAs. Speech was assessed at different data points. HRQoL and intelligibility by different communication partners were assessed before and after the intervention using the VPI Effects on Life Outcomes questionnaire and the Intelligibility in Context Scale. Groups were compared over time using linear mixed models.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Significant Time × Group effects were observed for \"non-oral CMAs\" and \"Percentage Consonants Correct-Revised for word imitation and sentence imitation.\" These outcomes improved in both groups, but improvements were significantly larger in the combined intervention group. Similar effects were observed for holistic outcomes such as speech understandability and acceptability. In the group that received the combined intervention, improvements were maintained 3 months after the intervention period, whereas in the motor-phonetic group, the initial improvements were not sustained. HRQoL and intelligibility by the child's friends and acquaintances also improved in both groups, but improvements were higher in the combined intervention group.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>This study demonstrates the superior effects of combined phonetic-phonological interventions over motor-phonetic interventions in eliminating non-oral CMAs. While motor-phonetic approaches tend to result in short-term gains, combined phonetic-phonological intervention strategies may lead to more long-lasting changes by promoting generalization. This underscores the importance of addressing both phonetic and phonological aspects of speech.</p>","PeriodicalId":520690,"journal":{"name":"Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR","volume":" ","pages":"1-20"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144612783","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of the Head Lift and Recline Exercise Regimens on the Neuromuscular Control of Functional Swallowing in Older Adults: An Electromyography Study Revealing Potential Differential Mechanisms.","authors":"Samantha S Mitchell, Robert Brinton Fujiki, Abby J Oliver, Bruce A Craig, Georgia A Malandraki","doi":"10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00790","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00790","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The head lift exercise (HLE) and recline exercise (RE) are rehabilitative exercises that have been shown to elicit similar biomechanical swallowing changes in older adults. However, the neuromuscular mechanisms underlying these changes are unknown and could elucidate the physiological mechanisms these exercises target.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>A randomized clinical trial with two arms-a 6-week HLE or RE regimen-was conducted. Data were collected on older adults pre- and posttreatment and at 6-week follow-up using videofluoroscopic swallow studies (VFSSs) and surface electromyography (sEMG). Results of the VFSS showing similar hyolaryngeal excursion gains post both regimens have been published. This follow-up study presents the sEMG data and includes data from 18 older adults (age range: 60-82 years; HLE = 9, RE = 9) from the pre- and posttreatment time points. sEMG activity measures (normalized mean amplitude, burst duration, and time to peak sEMG amplitude) were collected from submental muscles during standardized swallow tasks.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Normalized mean amplitude, burst duration, and time to peak amplitude during swallowing did not significantly change posttreatment for either group. Post hoc correlational analysis of percent change between outcome measures from pre- to posttreatment revealed a strong negative relationship between normalized mean amplitude and time to peak amplitude for liquids (<i>r</i> = -.926, <i>p</i> = .0001) and pudding (<i>r</i> = -.901, <i>p</i> = .0001), indicating that participants who required greater levels of muscular contraction to functionally swallow posttreatment may need less time to reach that contraction level and vice versa.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>In combination with the Fujiki, Oliver, Malandraki, et al. (2019) results, these findings support that older adults show improvements in anterior and superior hyoid excursion post both HLE and RE without the need for greater submental musculature contraction. The inverse relationship identified post hoc between the percent change of amplitude and time to peak amplitude may indicate different neuromuscular mechanisms for biomechanical gains and needs further exploration for future personalized treatments.</p>","PeriodicalId":520690,"journal":{"name":"Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR","volume":" ","pages":"1-12"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144612781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Latent Profiles of Early Language Development in a Large Finnish-Speaking Sample of the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study.","authors":"Essi Saloranta, Akie Yada, Stewart McCauley, Aura Yli-Savola, Satu Savo, Kati Renvall, Eeva Eskola, Michelle Fernandes, Riikka Korja, Hasse Karlsson, Linnea Karlsson, Elina Mainela-Arnold","doi":"10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00767","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00767","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>Research on early language development has primarily used two categories to group at-risk children, differing by the age at which risk is identified. Late talkers are toddlers with late onset of language development, some of whom may catch up with peers. Developmental language disorder is used to refer to children above the age of 4 years. To this day, the longitudinal relationship between the two categories remains unclear. In this study, we explored early language trajectories in a large birth cohort using exploratory methodology to gain better understanding of the types and prevalence of language trajectories from 14 months to 5 years of age, with particular interest in risk trajectories that cluster statistically.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>We conducted latent profile analysis (LPA) on seven language variables collected between 1 and 5 years of age (<i>N</i> = 1,281). Multinomial logistic regression procedure was used to identify child and family characteristics that predicted profile memberships.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The LPA yielded three profiles of language development described as <i>persistent low</i>, <i>stable average</i>, and <i>stable high.</i> Female sex, longer duration of pregnancy, and higher maternal socioeconomic status increased the odds of belonging to the stable high-language profile, whereas male sex and not being first born increased the odds of belonging to persistent low language profile.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Contrary to previous research, we did not observe increasing or decreasing profiles, suggesting that toddler language difficulties tend to persist at age 5 years, at least in this birth cohort. This suggests commencing language intervention early instead of the wait-and-see approach.</p><p><strong>Supplemental material: </strong>https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.29441471.</p>","PeriodicalId":520690,"journal":{"name":"Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR","volume":" ","pages":"1-17"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144610877","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Time-Integrated Curvature of Fundamental Frequency as a Novel Approach to Pitch Complexity: Insights From First-Language Pitch Development.","authors":"Lei He","doi":"10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00851","DOIUrl":"10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00851","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>Commonly used methods for computing the fundamental frequency (<i>F</i>0) variability either fail to capture time-dependent variations (such as the range, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation) or are abstract in terms of interpretations (such as polynomial regressions fitted over an annotated region). A novel approach based on time-integrated curvature was proposed to capture temporal variations in the <i>F</i>0 across an utterance. A corpus comprising one group of adults and three age groups of children was used to perform a preliminary test of this method in comparison with the range and coefficient of variation.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>The time-integrated curvature of <i>F</i>0 was computed based on the second derivative of <i>F</i>0, which indicates its bending direction and the degree at each instant. The second derivative was squared, integrated, and normalized to the utterance length to obtain an estimation of the total time-dependent variations in <i>F</i>0. Linear mixed-effects models were used to evaluate the effect of age group on the new method, as well as the <i>F</i>0 range and coefficient of variation.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Both the coefficient of variation and the time-integrated curvature of <i>F</i>0 showed a significant effect on age groups. While the coefficient of variation showed a significant difference between adults and children in general, the time-integrated curvature also demonstrated similarities in neighboring age groups. These results are in line with previous research showing that children do not produce adultlike complexities in pitch contours.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This study demonstrated that the novel approach provided valuable insights into first-language pitch development and indicated further applicability in areas where time-dependent <i>F</i>0 variations are relevant, such as speech pathology and forensic voice comparison.</p>","PeriodicalId":520690,"journal":{"name":"Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR","volume":" ","pages":"3171-3182"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144133385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Particle Transport From the Vocal Folds to the Oral Cavity.","authors":"Ville Vuorinen, Waseeq Siddiqui, Erkki Laurila, Daulet Izbassarov, Marko Korhonen, Enni Sanmark, Ahmed Geneid, Lotta-Maria Oksanen, Anna Tuhkuri Matvejeff","doi":"10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00896","DOIUrl":"10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00896","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>Our purpose was to model the transport and fate of respiratory particles in the vocal tract during phonation and to determine the size of particles that can be emitted if generated at the level of glottis or below. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated discussion on airborne transmission has led to a need to understand particle emission during respiratory activities and its mechanisms. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations can model particle transport inside the airways, as in vivo measurements remain challenging.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>CFD (large eddy) simulations were used to analyze airflow patterns in the vocal tract and the motion of particles (1-100 μm) introduced from the level of glottis. The effect of airflow velocity was evaluated.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In the model, the upper airway filtered the large particles, allowing only particles < 10 μm to exit the mouth. The cutoff size for filtration depends on airflow velocity and Stokes number of particles, which describes a particle's tendency to follow the flow. The results indicate that the cutoff size decreases when the flow rate increases.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>We demonstrated that the largest particles (> 5-10 μm) formed below the pharynx may adhere to airway walls due to the complex anatomy of the vocal tract. We propose that the primary deposition mechanism is the inability of these particles to change direction at locations where the flow turns. The results therefore suggest that infections in lower airways may transmit primarily via small particles. This should be considered when planning suitable protective measures.</p><p><strong>Supplemental material: </strong>https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.29242412.</p>","PeriodicalId":520690,"journal":{"name":"Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR","volume":" ","pages":"3107-3118"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144289746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Grammaticality of Tag Questions as a Longitudinal Morphosyntactic Marker of Children With Specific Language Impairment Compared to Peers Ages 5-18 Years.","authors":"Mabel L Rice, Kathleen Kelsey Earnest, Lesa Hoffman","doi":"10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00587","DOIUrl":"10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00587","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>Previous studies documenting longitudinal linguistic outcomes of children with specific language impairment (SLI) compared to their age peers focus on the property of obligatory finiteness marking in sentences across the age span of 5-18 years. This study evaluates tag questions as syntactically complex sentences that extend the demands of finiteness marking across clauses, requiring coordination of negation in the base sentence and tag question.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>Five hundred eleven children (240 unaffected, 271 SLI affected), between 5 and 18 years of age participated, following a rolling recruitment longitudinal design, which included a total of 4,718 observations. The linguistic task was designed to evaluate four variations of tag questions, two of which targeted polarity requirements for tags and two of which were nonpolarity differences in the tag. Growth modeling methods were used to test hypotheses of group differences (SLI vs. unaffected) in understanding of tag questions over 5-18 years. Covariates were child nonverbal IQ, mother's education, and child sex.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Children with SLI's outcomes varied by age and item type. They performed below unaffected children across all tag outcomes at 10 years, scored correctly on nonpolarity items at 18 years (ceiling levels), and continued to lag unaffected children at 18 years on polarity items. Significant SLI effects on the outcomes were not moderated by the covariates.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>By 18 years, the SLI group performed the nonpolarity items correctly but continued to struggle with polarity items. Thus, polarity is of interest as a possible screener for SLI throughout the school years.</p>","PeriodicalId":520690,"journal":{"name":"Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR","volume":" ","pages":"3204-3225"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12263191/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144218514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Incongruency in the Response Priming Paradigm Influences Speech Muscle Activity.","authors":"Zoe Kriegel, Adam M Fullenkamp, Jason A Whitfield","doi":"10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00612","DOIUrl":"10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00612","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>The current investigation examined the effects of a verbal response priming paradigm on lip and jaw kinematics and facial muscle activity before and during verbal responses.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>Thirty younger adult control participants completed two verbal naming tasks, choice response and response priming, while acoustic, optical kinematic, and perioral electromyographic data were collected. The response priming task required a quick and accurate verbal response for congruent and incongruent trials. For both tasks, the response set was limited to three color words-red, green, and black-to permit comparison across tasks.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Facial muscle activity before the spoken response was greater for incongruent response priming trials compared to the choice or congruent response priming trials. Incongruent prime-target pairs in the response priming paradigm resulted in expected longer verbal response times compared to their congruent counterparts. However, lip and jaw kinematic range of motion and spatial variability were consistent across tasks and conditions. Individual-level data revealed variability in participant responses to experimental conditions that may present a range of expected responses for healthy control populations.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These findings suggest that, in addition to more central effects, some peripheral aspects of speech motor control may be modified by cognitive-linguistic conflict. Future research may investigate the ways in which these effects may differ for individuals with motor speech disorders that affect the selection and implementation of desired speech motor programs.</p>","PeriodicalId":520690,"journal":{"name":"Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR","volume":" ","pages":"3037-3055"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144133372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Impact of Word-Touch Synchrony on Early Language Development: Preliminary Findings From Korean Mother-Child Interactions.","authors":"Jongmin Jung, Eon-Suk Ko","doi":"10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00266","DOIUrl":"10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00266","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Purpose: </strong>This study evaluates the impact of temporal synchrony between maternal touch and speech on children's early language development. It investigates whether the proportion of word-touch co-occurrence, overlap, and alignment precision in maternal input influences language acquisition, hypothesizing that such synchrony boosts infants' attention and aids speech segmentation.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>We analyzed video recordings of 21 infants aged 6-16 months (<i>M</i>_age = 10 months 21 days, <i>SD</i> = 3 months 1 day), focusing on 6 min of interaction data per mother-infant pair. This age range marks a stage of development where infants are in the process of learning to segment words and associate them with meanings, highlighting their potential to benefit from redundant multimodal cues. The analysis included frequency of word-touch co-occurrence, extent of overlap, and precision of alignment. Infants' language skills were assessed using the Sequenced Language Scale for Infants (Kim, 2002), a standardized parent-report scale designed to evaluate language development in Korean infants.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Multivariable linear regression analyses indicated that higher proportions of word-touch co-occurrence and overlap, along with more precise alignment, positively correlated with infants' receptive language scores but did not significantly affect expressive language outcomes.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The findings underscore the significant role of temporal synchrony between maternal touch and speech in enhancing infants' receptive language skills.</p>","PeriodicalId":520690,"journal":{"name":"Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR","volume":" ","pages":"3337-3347"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144311223","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}