Stories with silly sentences

For toddlers ages 19 to 28 months

In this study, your child will listen to some stories which sometimes have silly sentences. We want to know what children think about these silly sentences, based on what they are looking at. We will ask you to wear headphones while your child listens to the sentences, so that you do not hear the sentences (and react differently to the silly ones yourself).

This research explores how and when children learn various aspects of their first language, particularly when those aspects vary across languages. For example, languages can have different word orders ("the red dog" or "the dog red"), or different ways of expressing when something has happened (past)/will happen (future). By looking at these differences, this study aims to discover what children have in common as they learn about their language.

20 minutes

Families will receive a $5 Amazon.com gift card. You will receive your gift card within one week of participation. To be eligible for the gift card, your child must be in the age range for this study, you need to provide a verbal consent statement, and we need to see that there is a child with you who is listening to the stories. Only one gift card per child is available.