Early language, cognitive and social capacities pave the way for later development.
There is no greater wonder than watching a baby discover the world. They learn at lightning speed — from first steps to first words to first days in a playgroup or preschool. How do they learn so fast? How do they know so much? We’ve shown that even before babies can roll over in their cribs, they have begun to link the language they hear to the objects, events, and people in the world around them. We’ve also discovered that when infants listen to human language, it does more than just promote language skills. In fact, listening to human language promotes fundamental cognitive capacities as well.
Projects
What sounds in the environment are "for me?"
How does language boost my memory of objects?
What can I learn from others?
How do I respond to the world?
What do babies think of sign language?
- Ferguson, B., Franconeri, S., & Waxman, S. (2018). Very young infants learn abstract rules in the visual modality. PLoS ONE, 13(1): e019018. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190185.
- Lovato, S., & Waxman, S.R. (2018). Young children learning from touch screens: Taking a wider view. In J. Tarasuik, G. Strouse and J. Kaufman (Eds) Touch screen tablets touching children’s lives (pp. 231-240). Lausanne, Switzerland: Frontiers Media.
- Perszyk, D.R., & Waxman, S.R. (2017). Linking Language and Cognition in Infancy. Annual Review of Psychology, 69, 21-250. doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-122216-011701
- Ferguson, B., Graf, E., &Waxman, S.R. (2017). When veps cry: Two-year-olds efficiently learn novel words from linguistic contexts alone. Language Learning and Development. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/15475441.2017.1311260
- Waxman, S.R., Fu, X., Ferguson, B., Geraghty, K., Leddon, E., Liang, J., Zhao, M. (2016). How early is infants’ attention to objects and actions shaped by culture? New evidence from 24-month-olds raised in the US and China. Frontiers in Psychology: Cultural Psychology. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00097
- Havy, M., & Waxman, S.R. (2016). Naming influences 9-month-olds’ identification of discrete categories along a perceptual continuum. Cognition, 156, 41- 51. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2016.07.011
- Perszyk, D., & Waxman, S.R. (2016). Listening to the calls of the wild: The role of experience in linking language and cognition in young infants. Cognition, 153, 175-181. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2016.05.004
- Ferguson, B. &Waxman, S.R. (2016). What the [beep]? Six-month-olds link novel communicative signals to meaning. Cognition, 146, 185-189. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2015.09.020
- Vouloumanos, A., & Waxman, S. R. (2014). Listen up! Speech is for thinking during infancy. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18(12), 642-646.
- Ferry, A., Hespos, S., Waxman, S. (2013). Non-human primate vocalizations support categorization in very young human infants. PNAS, 110(38), 15231–15235.
- Ferry, A., Hespos, S., & Waxman, S. (2010). Categorization in 3- and 4-month-old infants: An advantage of words over tones. Child Development, 81(2), 472-479.