The Impact of Word-Touch Synchrony on Early Language Development: Preliminary Findings From Korean Mother-Child Interactions.

Purpose: This study evaluates the impact of temporal synchrony between maternal touch and speech on children's early language development. It investigates whether the proportion of word-touch co-occurrence, overlap, and alignment precision in maternal input influences language acquisition, hypothesi...

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Published in:Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research Vol. 68; no. 7; pp. 3337 - 3348
Main Authors: Jongmin Jung, Eon-Suk Ko
Format: Article
Published: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Jul2025
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Jul2025
      vid: 68
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      pub: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
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        10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00266
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        atl: The Impact of Word-Touch Synchrony on Early Language Development: Preliminary Findings From Korean Mother-Child Interactions.
      aug:
        au:
          Jongmin Jung
          Eon-Suk Ko
        affil:
          Center for Data Science in Humanities, Chosun University, Gwangju, South Korea
          Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Chosun University, Gwangju, South Korea
      su:
        Speech
        Parameters (Statistics)
        Mother-child relationship
        Language acquisition
        Children
        Research funding
        Touch
        Multiple regression analysis
        Descriptive statistics
        Mathematical statistics
        Learning strategies
        Confidence intervals
        Nonparametric statistics
      sug:
        subj:
          Speech
          Parameters (Statistics)
          Mother-child relationship
          Language acquisition
          Children
          Research funding
          Touch
          Multiple regression analysis
          Descriptive statistics
          Mathematical statistics
          Learning strategies
          Confidence intervals
          Nonparametric statistics
      ab: Purpose: This study evaluates the impact of temporal synchrony between maternal touch and speech on children's early language development. It investigates whether the proportion of word-touch co-occurrence, overlap, and alignment precision in maternal input influences language acquisition, hypothesizing that such synchrony boosts infants' attention and aids speech segmentation. Method: We analyzed video recordings of 21 infants aged 6-16 months (Mage = 10 months 21 days, SD = 3 months 1 day), focusing on 6 min of interaction data per mother-infant pair. This age range marks a stage of development where infants are in the process of learning to segment words and associate them with meanings, highlighting their potential to benefit from redundant multimodal cues. The analysis included frequency of word-touch cooccurrence, extent of overlap, and precision of alignment. Infants' language skills were assessed using the Sequenced Language Scale for Infants (Kim, 2002), a standardized parent-report scale designed to evaluate language development in Korean infants. Results: Multivariable linear regression analyses indicated that higher proportions of word-touch co-occurrence and overlap, along with more precise alignment, positively correlated with infants' receptive language scores but did not significantly affect expressive language outcomes. Conclusion: The findings underscore the significant role of temporal synchrony between maternal touch and speech in enhancing infants' receptive language skills.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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