A multi-lab study of bilingual infants: Exploring the preference for infant-directed speech

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics
• Infant Language Acquisition

Background:

• Infants show a preference for infant-directed speech (IDS) over adult-directed speech (ADS) from an early age.
• IDS varies significantly across languages, cultures, and communities.
• Understanding how linguistic diversity impacts infant language preference is crucial for developmental research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the influence of bilingual experiences on infants' preference for infant-directed speech (IDS).
• To compare IDS preference in bilingual and monolingual infants across different linguistic environments.
• To examine the relationship between exposure to North-American English (NAE) and IDS preference in bilingual infants.

Main Methods:

• A large-scale, multi-site study involving 333 bilingual and 385 monolingual infants (aged 6-9 months and 12-15 months).
• Lab-matched samples tested across 17 labs in 7 countries, comparing preference for North-American English IDS.
• Utilized the ManyBabies 1 project's methodology to ensure standardized data collection.

Main Results:

• Both bilingual and monolingual infants demonstrated a significant preference for IDS over ADS.
• No significant difference was found in the overall magnitude of IDS preference between bilingual and monolingual infants.
• Among bilingual infants acquiring NAE, increased NAE exposure correlated with a stronger IDS preference.

Conclusions:

• Infant-directed speech (IDS) preference plays a comparable role in both monolingual and bilingual language development.
• Infants exhibit a high sensitivity to the characteristics and frequency of linguistic input in their environment.
• Early language exposure shapes infants' foundational preferences for speech directed towards them.