Children ages 3-4.5 years of age will watch videos designed to teach them made-up verbs. Then, they will be tested on whether they were able to learn the made-up verbs that were presented to them. Findings from this study will help researchers better understand how children learn language and what word-learning situations are easy or difficult for toddlers. This study will be conducted virtually using video conferencing software.

This study explores the best way to teach two-year-old toddlers new verbs, and whether there are differences in what is best between late talkers and typically developing children. In a series of two, one-hour visits, children will watch videos on an eye-tracker, which will capture their face and gaze patterns. This data will be analyzed to see how children are making sense of what they are hearing. In one task, we ask whether it is better for children to hear a new verb before they see the action it denotes, or whether it is better to see the new action before hearing the verb. In the second task, we consider how quickly children are able to make sense of the language they hear, and whether this has any relationship to how they learn new verbs (Task 1). Results will help shape new clinical interventions for late talkers.