CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS

                                                              PARTICIPATION IN EITHER PHASE BELOW IS AVAILABLE IN BLACKSBURG OR ROANOKE

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Phase I: How Does Context Affect the Relationship between Multisensory Integration and Language Skill in 18-Month-Olds? (PI: Caroline Taylor)

In the everyday environment, we simultaneously receive various information from what we hear, see, smell, touch, and even taste. By integrating all of this incoming information, particularly speech, infants ultimately learn to reproduce language by late toddlerhood. Here, 18-month-old toddlers will be recruited to determine if their ability to combine incoming visual + auditory information is impacted by their environmental contexts, and whether these skills measured using a fun, age-appropriate movie are related to language in 18-month-olds.

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Currently recruiting: Infants (16 - 20 months of age)

Phase II: Multisensory Integration to Social and Nonsocial Events and Emerging Language in Toddlerhood (PI: Caroline Taylor)

In this study, children who participated in Phase I are invited back for Phase II.  They will watch a series of videos where women will be telling stories and small objects will be moving and making sounds. We are looking at 1) how these videos capture toddlers' attention, and 2) how toddlers are able to make sense of videos when what they see and hear are mismatched. Additionally, this project incorporates a brief, parent-child free play session to explore how play interactions shape early childhood development.

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