According to new research from Indiana University, children’s visual experiences could influence their first words. The research team, led by Linda Smith (a professor in IU Bloomington’s Dept. of Psychological and Brain Science) found that infants may link objects they most frequently see with words they most often hear. This new theory of language has been coined “pervasiveness hypothesis”. Smith went on to add that “visual memory may be the initial key to getting words stuck on objects-familiar objects like table, shirt, bottle, or spoon. It’s an aggregated experience, those very first words may be learned-slowly and incrementally-for a few visually pervasive objects. This may be how infants break into language before their first birthday.”
The results of the study may help inform future interventions for children with language disorders; difficulty learning words could be caused by visual-processing problems. For more information on this topic, see the March 2017 issue of The ASHA Leader.
If you are concerned about your child’s speech and or language development or skills, be sure to contact an ASHA certified SLP for an evaluation. A list of providers can be found at http://www.ASHA.org
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