LuCiD Centre Newsletter, June 2015

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June 2015: Update from the LuCiD Centre

News

Help us to learn more about how children use baby media to acquire language

Do you have a child aged 6 months to 3 years? If so, please help our researchers by completing our short online survey: child media exposure and language development questionnaire.

Listen to Prof Julian Pine discuss babytalk on BBC Radio Merseyside

LuCiD Director, Prof Julian Pine talked to BBC Radio Merseyside's Simon Hoban about parents' use of 'motherese' or 'babytalk' following a recent study by the Acoustical Society of America. Listen here (segment starts around 58 minutes) - show available until 18^th June .

LuCiD to write Language Development Series for Nursery World Magazine

We have been commissioned to write a 5 article series on language development for nursery world magazine. The first article, by Prof Caroline Rowland and Dr Michelle Peter, will be published in the June 15^th edition of the magazine and focuses on why a language rich environment both at home and in the nursery is vital if a child is to progress easily through the many stages of early speech development. The full articles will also be published on the LuCiD website, so check our news pages for these.

Welcome!

Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter! Since we launched in September 2014 the LuCiD team has grown considerably. Projects are up and running in all of our UK partner universities with data collection underway for a number of project components. We have been busy working with our local advisors and impact champions to develop links with parents, early years practitioners, nursery school heads, speech and language therapists (SLTs) and relevant advocacy groups to ensure that our research will really make a difference. We have a number of exciting events, training workshops and seminars planned and hope to see you at one during the course of LuCiD.

- Prof Elena Lieven,
LuCiD Principal Investigator

Read the latest LuCiD Blog

Dr Katie Twomey explores how children's curiosity drives their learning in the latest LuCiD blog. Read it here.

Read our Research Findings

All LuCiD's publications and other research outputs, such as presentations, research posters and conference abstracts, are published in our outputs database on our website. Explore it here.

Parents and Children Needed to Help Our Research

To carry out child language research we rely on the help of hundreds of parents and children who are on our volunteer lists. In particular, we need parents of children aged 0-5 in the Lancaster, Liverpool and Manchester areas who would be willing to come into our babylabs to take part in our research. Studies are designed to be fun and families taking part usually have a great time! Find out more about taking part in one of our studies.

Upcoming Events

30 June: Learning Language Over Time, Prof Rebecca Gomez Seminar

This lunchtime seminar in Lancaster will see Prof Rebecca Gomez (University of Arizona) discuss her research on the role of sleep in newly formed memories in infants, toddlers and preschool children. Read the abstract and get directions. This event is part of LuCiD's seminar series which is open for anyone to attend.

13-17 July: #SLT Learn Online Event

Prof Julian Pine will give a talk on children's early language development during this week of online talks for SLTs organised by Pearson Clinical Assessment. Find out more.

14 October: Free Workshop for SLTs

This workshop in Manchester aims to introduce SLTs to a range of research methods and resources that could be used to informally assess children’s language. The workshop draws on research methodologies used routinely in child language research. Find out more.

7-8 November: Kids Say the Funniest Things, LuCiD event for families at Manchester Museum

Save the date: LuCiD researchers and the Manchester Museum are working together on a fun family event focused on how children learn language. More details will be published on the LuCiD and Manchester Museum websites in due course.

Forward

The ESRC International Centre for Language and Communicative Development (LuCiD) is a 5 year collaboration between the universities of Lancaster, Liverpool and Manchester. Our mission is to bring about a step change in the understanding of how children learn to communicate with language, and deliver the evidence base necessary to design effective interventions in early years’ education and healthcare. We are funded by the Economic and Social Research Council under the Centres and Large Grants Scheme (ref: ES/L008955/1). Our funding runs from September 2014 to August 2019.