Early Predictors of Infant-Parent Coordinated Attention and Word Learning in Preterm and Full-Term Infants - PROJECT SUMMARY Preterm birth (PT, <37 weeks of gestation) is a significant public health concern due to the increased survival rates combined with elevated risks of developing neurocognitive impairments among survivors. Extensive research indicates that, relative to full-term infants (FTs), PT infants (PTs) exhibit deficits in basic visual attention functions and motor skills emerging from the first year of life, accompanied by language delays in the first two years. While attention and motor abilities serve a foundational role in language acquisition, there is limited understanding of the mechanistic pathway from PT birth to language learning performance. Infant-parent coordinated visual attention (CVA) that reflects infants’ ability to coordinate attention to an object with a caregiver provides critical moments for language learning. Emerging research studying CVA in free-flowing FT-parent interactions highlights that bouts of CVA arise from attention-motor coordination within individuals and between infant-parent dyads. CVA bouts enhance FTs’ sustained attention to the toys and coincide with parents’ naming of the toys. The multisensory experience facilitates real-time word learning and predicts better language outcomes. However, to our knowledge, no studies have examined how PT birth may impact the formation of CVA and real-time word learning. There is also limited knowledge of the developmental cascading effects of attention and motor deficits on CVA in PTs. To address these gaps, the present proposal aims to 1) examine the impact of very PT birth (<32 weeks of gestation) on CVA and real-time word learning performance, and 2) assess the longitudinal effects of infant and attention functions and motor abilities on CVA. We will also explore the indirect effects infants’ attention and motor abilities at 12 months and vocabulary size at 18 months through CVA in PTs and FTs. At 12 months of age, attention subfunctions will be examined using three screen-based eye- tracking marker tasks. This age is marked by the emergence of individual differences in endogenous attention control. Gross and fine motor skills will be assessed using a standardized assessment. At 18 months, we will incorporate mobile eye tracking in an infant-parent free-play paradigm to study the formation and impacts of CVA from the first-person perspective. The infant-parent dyads will play with novel toys with pseudoword names. Real-time comprehension of the toy names will be examined immediately after the free play using an eye tracking Looking-While-Listening task, a well-established paradigm for measuring word comprehension. Infants’ vocabulary size will be measured using parental reports on a vocabulary checklist. Our innovation is marked by 1) uncovering mechanisms contributing to PT-induced individual differences in language learning experiences, and 2) implementing a multi-timescale investigation to study child-centered factors (i.e., attention and motor) that shape inputs for language learning in real time (moment-by-moment) and across a 6-month span of development. In line with NICHD’s priority, the findings will shed light on the developmental cascades from PT birth and enhance the ability to identify clinically useful predictors of disrupted language acquisition following PT birth.
