Help E.T. Learn 'Earth Talk'!

For 4- to 6-year-olds who speak English as a native language

Your child will be helping an extraterrestrial friend, 'E.T.', learn how we talk on Earth. Together with E.T., your child will listen to a sentence like "Kermit sees Miss Piggy" or "Big Bird is carried by Grover." At the same time, they'll see two pictures (say, a picture of Big Bird carrying Grover, next to a picture of Grover carrying Big Bird). Your child's job will be to show E.T. which picture matches, by clicking on it with your computer's mouse or trackpad.

This study examines children's comprehension of passive-voice sentences, like "The teacher is loved by her students." Certain passive sentences are still difficult for children even when their language sounds very much like an adult's. We would like to characterize this area of difficulty more precisely, because language therapists need to know how to distinguish between difficulties that reflect a genuine language disorder, and difficulties that are simply part of typical language development. Specifically, we are testing a theory that says the passive sentences that are the most challenging for typically developing children are the ones involving "mental state" verbs such as 'remember' and 'like'.

10 minutes

Eligible participants will receive a personalized 'Junior Scientist' certificate from our laboratory. The certificate normally arrives in your inbox within one week. (Children should not complete the study more than once.)