Maria M. Arredondo

Differential effects of bilingualism and culture on early attention: a longitudinal study in the U.S., Argentina, and Vietnam.

A large body of literature suggests that bilingualism strongly influences attentional processes among a variety of age groups. Increasing studies, however, indicate that culture may also have measurable effects on attentional processes. Bilinguals are often exposed to multiple cultural backgrounds, therefore, it is unclear if being exposed to multiple languages and culture together influence attentional processes, or if the effect themselves are uniquely linked to different attentional processes. The present study explores the relevancy of different attentional processes—alerting, orienting, and executive control—to language and to culture. In the present study, 97 3-years-old (Mean age = 38.78 months) monolingual and bilingual children from three countries (the U.S., Argentina, and Vietnam) were longitudinally tested for a total of five time points on a commonly used non-linguistic attentional paradigm—the Attention Network Test. Results demonstrate that when other factors are controlled (e.g., socio-economic status, vocabulary knowledge, age), culture plays an important role on the development of the alerting and executive control attentional network, while language status was only significant on the executive control attentional network. The present study indicates that culture may interact with bilingualism to further explain previous reported advantages, as well as elucidate the increasing disparity surrounding cognitive advantages in bilingual literature.

Comparison of motion correction techniques applied to functional near-infrared spectroscopy data from children.

Abstract. Motion artifacts are the most significant sources of noise in the context of pediatric brain imaging designs and data analyses, especially in applications of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), in which it can completely affect the quality of the data acquired. Different methods have been developed to correct motion artifacts in fNIRS data, but the relative effectiveness of these methods for data from child and infant subjects (which is often found to be significantly noisier than adult data) remains largely unexplored. The issue is further complicated by the heterogeneity of fNIRS data artifacts. We compared the efficacy of the six most prevalent motion artifact correction techniques with fNIRS data acquired from children participating in a language acquisition task, including wavelet, spline interpolation, principal component analysis, moving average (MA), correlation-based signal improvement, and combination of wavelet and MA. The evaluation of five predefined metrics suggests that the MA and wavelet methods yield the best outcomes. These findings elucidate the varied nature of fNIRS data artifacts and the efficacy of artifact correction methods with pediatric populations, as well as help inform both the theory and practice of optical brain imaging analysis.

Brain bases of morphological processing in young children

How does the developing brain support the transition from spoken language to print? Two spoken language abilities form the initial base of child literacy across languages: knowledge of language sounds (phonology) and knowledge of the smallest units that carry meaning (morphology). While phonology has received much attention from the field, the brain mechanisms that support morphological competence for learning to read remain largely unknown. In the present study, young English‐speaking children completed an auditory morphological awareness task behaviorally (n = 69, ages 6–12) and in fMRI (n = 16). The data revealed two findings: First, children with better morphological abilities showed greater activation in left temporoparietal regions previously thought to be important for supporting phonological reading skills, suggesting that this region supports multiple language abilities for successful reading acquisition. Second, children showed activation in left frontal regions previously found active in young Chinese readers, suggesting morphological processes for reading acquisition might be similar across languages. These findings offer new insights for developing a comprehensive model of how spoken language abilities support childrens reading acquisition across languages. Hum Brain Mapp 36:2890–2900, 2015.

Understanding the Impact of Heritage Language on Ethnic Identity Formation and Literacy for u.s. Latino Children

Studies show positive associations between ethnic identity, socio-emotional health and academic success. However, most work is carried out with adolescents and few have examined how young children develop an ethnic identity, particularly U.S. Latino children. The present study represents a first-pass investigation of children’s ethnic identity mechanisms and their relation to academic success. We carried out semi-structured interviews in Spanish with 25 Latino children (ages 5–12). Open-ended questions addressed items on the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure and Ethnic Identity Scale, incorporating a mixed qualitative (i.e., themes) and quantitative (i.e., scoring) analysis. Results revealed that children provide great detail when discussing their ethnic background. Additionally, Latino children’s bilingualism and Spanish-language proficiency were significant markers of ethnic identity formation, which in turn were positively associated with affect and Spanish literacy. These findings shed light on the complexities of ethnic identity construction during children’s early years, and establish a path for further investigation of Latino children’s socio-emotional health and academic achievement.

Simultaneous acquisition of English and Chinese impacts children’s reliance on vocabulary, morphological and phonological awareness for reading in English

ABSTRACT The developmental process of reading acquisition is frequently conceptualized as a self-organizing mental network consisting of lexico-semantic, phonological and orthographical components. The developmental nature of this network varies across languages and is known to impact second-language learners of typologically different languages. Yet, it remains largely unknown whether such cross-linguistic differences interact within young bilingual learners of two typologically different languages. In the present study, we compared Chinese–English bilinguals and English monolinguals (ages 6–12, N = 134) born and raised in the US on their English language and reading skills including vocabulary, phonological and morphological awareness, and word reading. We conducted whole group and subgroup analyses on younger participants to examine the extent of the effect. In monolinguals, phonological abilities directly predicted English word reading. In contrast, in bilinguals, both phonological and morphological abilities made an indirect contribution to English literacy via vocabulary knowledge, even though bilinguals had monolingual-like language and reading abilities in English. These findings offer new insights into the flexibility of the phonological and lexical pathways for learning to read.

The effects of Spanish heritage language literacy on English reading for Spanish–English bilingual children in the US

ABSTRACT Models of monolingual literacy propose that reading acquisition builds upon children’s semantic, phonological, and orthographic knowledge. The relationships between these components vary cross-linguistically, yet it is generally unknown how these differences impact bilingual children’s literacy. A comparison between Spanish–English bilingual and English monolingual children (ages 6–13, N = 70) from the US revealed that bilinguals had stronger associations between phonological and orthographic representations than monolinguals during English reading. While vocabulary was the strongest predictor of English word reading for both groups, phonology and morphosyntax were the best predictors of Spanish reading for bilinguals. This comparison reveals distinct developmental processes across learners and languages, and suggests that early and systematic biliteracy exposure at home and through afterschool programs can influence children’s sound-to-print associations even in the context of language-specific (monolingual) reading instruction. These findings have important implications for bilingual education as well as theories that aim to explain how learning to read across languages has a positive impact on the acquisition of literacy.

In young readers, the left hemisphere supports the link between temporal processing and phonological awareness

Phonological awareness, the ability to manipulate the sounds of language, is key for learning to read. The first step towards phonological competence is identification of syllables and rimes. In a continuous speech stream, syllables and rimes are marked by slow temporal rhythmic modulations, including changes in vowel intensity or amplitude rise time (ART). Prior work suggests that childrens sensitivity to ART predicts reading ability and dyslexia across languages. Yet, little is known about the brain bases of this sensitivity that might be key to both language and reading acquisition. The present study explored the hypothesis that childrens brain response to slow temporal modulations, tested with amplitude rise perception, relates to child reading acquisition. Fifteen young readers (ages 7–12) completed ART and a control intensity discrimination task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Behavioral findings validated the link between ART sensitivity, language and literacy abilities in young readers. Neuroimaging findings showed that while bilateral temporal cortexes were active during the ART task, children with better phonological and ART abilities showed reduced brain activation in left temporal lobe. These findings suggest a link between amplitude rise perception and left-lateralized language abilities, and carry implications for better understanding of language, literacy, and reading disability across languages.