Papers by Margaret Friend
A large number of children in the world are exposed to more than one language. One well-establish... more A large number of children in the world are exposed to more than one language. One well-established method of assessing early vocabulary development in monolingual children is parent report, however, its use in bilingual/multilingual contexts is less established and brings unique challenges. In this methodological scoping review, we reviewed studies of early vocabulary development using parent report with bilingual/multilingual children (1980-2022). A total of 576 articles were screened, yielding 101 studies for analysis. The number of studies on bilingual vocabulary grew in the last two decades, yet representation of the world’s languages remains sparse. The majority of studies assessed bilingual children's vocabulary in both languages and used instruments adapted for linguistic and cultural factors. However, the field could benefit from standardized reporting practices regarding definitions of bi/multilingualism, selection of reporters, and tool development. Studies that devel...
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Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2021
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Purpose: This study examines the influence of lexical and phonological factors on expressive lexi... more Purpose: This study examines the influence of lexical and phonological factors on expressive lexicon size in 40 French-speaking children tested longitudinally from 22 to 48 months. The factors include those based on the lexical and phonological properties of words in the children’s lexicons (phonetic complexity, word length, neighborhood density [ND], and word frequency [WF]) as well as variables measuring phonological production (percent consonants correct and phonetic inventory size). Specifically, we investigate the relative influence of these factors at individual ages, namely, 22, 29, 36, and 48 months, and which factors measured at 22 and 29 months influence lexicon size at 36 and 48 months.Method: Children were selected based on parent-reported vocabulary size. We included children with low, medium, and high vocabulary scores. The children’s lexicons were coded in terms of phonetic complexity, word length, ND, and WF, and their phonological production skills were based on mea...
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Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 2021
Purpose: This study investigated within-language and between-language associations between phonol... more Purpose: This study investigated within-language and between-language associations between phonological memory, vocabulary, and grammar in French–English ( n = 43) and Spanish–English ( n = 25) bilingual children at 30, 36, and 48 months. It was predicted that phonological memory would display both within-language and between-language relations to language development and that these relations would be stronger at the youngest age. Method: Bilingual children participated in free-play sessions in both of their languages at each age, from which vocabulary and grammatical information (number of different words and mean length of utterance) was extracted. Vocabulary information was also obtained from parent inventories completed when the children were 30 months and a standardized receptive vocabulary test administered at 36 and 48 months. The children were also administered nonword repetition tests in both of their languages at each age. Results: Mixed logistic regression indicated that ...
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Frontiers in Psychology, 2020
An important question in early bilingual first language acquisition concerns the development of l... more An important question in early bilingual first language acquisition concerns the development of lexical-semantic associations within and across two languages. The present study investigates the earliest emergence of lexical-semantic priming at 18 and 24 months in Spanish-English bilinguals (N = 32) and its relation to vocabulary knowledge within and across languages. Results indicate a remarkably similar pattern of development between monolingual and bilingual children, such that lexical-semantic development begins at 18 months and strengthens by 24 months. Further, measures of cross-language lexical knowledge are stronger predictors of children’s lexical-semantic processing skill than measures that capture single-language knowledge only. This suggests that children make use of both languages when processing semantic information. Together these findings inform the understanding of the relation between lexical-semantic breadth and organization in the context of dual language learners...
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Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2019
The current study explored bilingual parent and child code-switching patterns over time. Concurre... more The current study explored bilingual parent and child code-switching patterns over time. Concurrent and predictive models of code-switching behaviour on executive function outcomes were also examined in a sample of 29 French–English bilinguals at 36 (Wave 1) and 61 (Wave 2) months of age. We investigated whether code-switching typology in a single-language context predicted executive function performance at each wave independently, and whether growth in code-switching frequency across waves predicted executive function performance at Wave 2. At both waves, parents and children participated in two free play sessions (in English and French), followed by a battery of executive function tasks administered in the dominant language. Results indicate more frequent code-switching from the non-dominant to the dominant language in children, and that children code-switch to fill lexical gaps. Results also suggest that less frequent code-switching in a single-language context is associated with...
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Developmental psychology, Jul 5, 2018
Recent studies demonstrate that emerging literacy depends on earlier language achievement. Import... more Recent studies demonstrate that emerging literacy depends on earlier language achievement. Importantly, most extant work focuses on parent-reported production prior to 30 months of age. Of interest is whether and how directly assessed vocabulary comprehension in the 2nd year of life supports vocabulary and kindergarten readiness in the 4th year. We first contrasted orthogonal indices of parent-reported production and directly assessed vocabulary comprehension and found that comprehension was a stronger predictor of child outcomes. We then assessed prediction from vocabulary comprehension controlling for maternal education, preschool attendance, and child sex. In 3 studies early, decontextualized vocabulary comprehension emerged as a significant predictor of 4th year language and kindergarten readiness accounting for unique variance above demographic control variables. Further we found that the effect of early vocabulary on 4th year kindergarten readiness was not mediated by 4th year...
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PsycTESTS Dataset, 2016
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Journal of experimental child psychology, Dec 5, 2017
The current research follows up on two previous findings: that children with minimal dual-languag... more The current research follows up on two previous findings: that children with minimal dual-language exposure have smaller receptive vocabularies at 16months of age and that maternal education is a predictor of vocabulary when the dominant language is English but not when it is Spanish. The current study extends this research to 22-month-olds to assess the developmental effects of minimal exposure and maternal education on direct and parent-report measures of vocabulary size. The effects of minimal exposure on vocabulary size are no longer present at 22months of age, whereas maternal education effects remain but only for English speakers.
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Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2016
A longitudinal study of lexical development in very young French–English bilinguals is reported. ... more A longitudinal study of lexical development in very young French–English bilinguals is reported. The Computerized Comprehension Test (CCT) was used to directly assess receptive vocabulary and processing efficiency, and parental report (CDI) was used to measure expressive vocabulary in monolingual and bilingual infants at 16 months, and six months later, at 22 months. All infants increased their comprehension and production of words over the six-month period, and bilingual infants acquired approximately as many new words in each of their languages as the monolinguals did. Speed of online word processing was also equivalent in both groups at each wave of data collection, and increased significantly across waves. Importantly, significant relations emerged between language exposure, vocabulary size, and processing speed, with proportion of language exposure predicting vocabulary size at each time point. This study extends previous findings by utilizing a direct measure of receptive voca...
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Journal of Child Language, 2016
In order to address gaps in the literature surrounding the acquisition of translation equivalents... more In order to address gaps in the literature surrounding the acquisition of translation equivalents (TEs) in young bilinguals, two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, TEs were measured in the expressive vocabularies of thirty-four French–English bilinguals at 1;4, 1;10, and 2;6 using the MacArthur Bates CDI. Children's acquisition of TEs occurred gradually, with more balanced ratios of exposure and vocabulary associated with larger proportions of TEs at each wave. Experiment 2 compared a direct measure of TE comprehension with parent report of the same set of words. Results showed that parents may over-report children's TE comprehension, as our sample of two-year-old French–English bilinguals (n= 20) comprehended fewer TEs on a direct measure of receptive vocabulary than parents reported on the vocabulary checklist. The present study provides an original contribution to the literature on bilingual vocabulary development by employing both a longitudinal design and a di...
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Florida Educational Research and Development Council Research Bulletin, 1986
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Psychological Bulletin, 2016
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Enfance, 2011
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Journal of Cognition and Development, 2015
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Proceedings of the ... Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Boston University Conference on Language Development, Apr 1, 2013
The use of visual and haptic measures as proxies for underlying cognitive abilities has a rich hi... more The use of visual and haptic measures as proxies for underlying cognitive abilities has a rich history in infant development research, and perhaps none more so than studies of early vocabulary comprehension. Although visual and haptic measures have displayed long-term predictive value, it remains unclear whether visual attention and haptic responses are analogous and substitutable measures of lexical knowledge. The goal of the current study was to assess the bidirectional relationship between vision and action, and to evaluate the underlying word representations that guide infants' visual and haptic responses. Two measures of visual attention, one macro-level (look accuracy) and one micro-level (proportion of gaze shifts), were measured concurrently with haptic performance during an intermodal word comprehension task. During the task, infants were presented with two images simultaneously on a touchscreen and asked to touch one of the images. Results revealed a somewhat discrepan...
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Neuropsychologia, 2015
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Developmental Science, 2014
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Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 2015
Although the extant literature provides robust evidence of the influence of language exposure and... more Although the extant literature provides robust evidence of the influence of language exposure and socioeconomic status (SES) on language acquisition, it is unknown how sensitive the early receptive vocabulary system is to these factors. The current study investigates effects of minimal second language exposure and SES on the comprehension vocabulary of 16-month-old children in the language in which they receive the greatest exposure. Study 1 revealed minimal second language exposure and SES exert significant and independent effects on a direct measure of vocabulary comprehension in English-dominant and English monolingual children (N = 72). In Study 2, we replicated the effect of minimal second language exposure in Spanish-dominant and Spanish monolingual children (N = 86), however no effect of SES on vocabulary was obtained. Our results emphasize the sensitivity of the language system to minimal changes in the environment in early development.
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Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2013
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Papers by Margaret Friend