Language Learning Lab

Why are we conducting this research?

This research project will provide new insights into how young bilinguals learn two languages. What do bilingual parents do that helps their infants understand and say words in two languages? Most studies of early language development have examined children learning only one language, but millions of children in the U.S. grow up learning two or more languages. This means that the fields of developmental science, linguistics, early education, speech-language pathology, and medicine have an inaccurate view of how children learn to communicate. This research project will produce a richer and more inclusive understanding of early learning. By examining how bilingual and monolingual parents play with their infants, we will investigate how features of parent-child play relate to children’s language knowledge. The findings from this study will help parents, teachers, speech-language therapists, and doctors support the development of young bilinguals.

What tasks will we conduct in this study?

Experimenters will travel to families' homes or to our lab at the Center of Mind and Brain located in Davis to record play sessions between children and their caregivers. We will also interview parents regarding their language use, parenting style, and cultural background.

Participate in our study!

Contact us at our lab email: languagelab@ucdavis.edu or at our phone number: (530)754-4598 to join our subject pool. For lab visits, families will receive toys, picture books, or other small thank you gifts. For in-home visits, families will receive these gifts as well as a gift card rated at about $10 an hour.