Browsing by Author "Bruce, Madeleine D."

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    From terrible twos to sassy sixes: The development of vocabulary and executive functioning across early childhood
    Bruce, Madeleine D.; Savla, Jyoti; Bell, Martha Ann (Wiley, 2023-04)
    Across the early childhood period of development, young children exhibit considerable growth in their executive functioning (EF) and vocabulary abilities. Understanding the developmental trajectory of these seemingly interrelated processes is important as both early vocabulary and EF have been shown to predict critical academic and socio-emotional outcomes later in childhood. Although previous research suggests that EF and vocabulary are correlated in early childhood, much of the existing longitudinal research has focused on unidirectional relations among preschool child samples. The current large-scale study, therefore, sought to examine whether children's vocabulary and EF abilities are bidirectionally related over time across four measurement waves in early childhood (i.e., at ages 2, 3, 4, and 6). At each timepoint, children's vocabulary skills were positively correlated with their concurrent EF abilities. After controlling for child sex and maternal education status, the best-fitting, cross-lagged panel model was a unidirectional model whereby children's early vocabulary scores predicted their later EF performance at each timepoint. Although age 2 EF significantly predicted age 3 vocabulary size, this association was no longer significant after accounting for maternal education status. Our results illustrate that vocabulary size plays an important role in predicting children's later EF performance across various timepoints in early childhood, even after controlling for children's initial EF scores. These findings have important implications for intervention research as fostering early vocabulary acquisition may serve as a possible avenue for improving EF outcomes in young children.
  • Thumbnail Image
    From Terrible Twos to Sassy Sixes: The Development of Vocabulary and Executive Functioning Across Early Childhood
    Bruce, Madeleine D. (Virginia Tech, 2022-05-09)
    Early childhood marks a time when word learning is accompanied by rapid growth in the cognitive processes that underlie self-modulated and goal-directed behavior (i.e., executive functions (EF)). Although there is empirical evidence to support the association between EF and vocabulary development in childhood, inconsistent findings have been reported regarding the extent to which early EF abilities predict later vocabulary outcomes and vice versa. Thus, the first aim of the present study was to employ a stringent analytic approach to examining the longitudinal relations between EF and vocabulary across multiple waves in early childhood (i.e., at ages 2, 3, 4, and 6). Among the studies that have documented a link between children's early and later EF/vocabulary skills, the underlying mechanism(s) that can account for this association have yet to be identified. As such, the second and third aims of this study were to investigate children's private speech and visual attention skills as potential mediators of the hypothesized link between early and later EF/vocabulary. The results indicate that after controlling for maternal education, a unidirectional cross-lagged panel model best fit the data. That is, across all measurement waves, children's vocabulary scores at one timepoint were positively predictive of their EF performance at the following timepoint. Although no evidence of mediation was detected, a significant and novel association emerged between children's early vocabulary scores and their later private speech production. Moreover, this study was able to replicate the well-established link between visual attention and receptive vocabulary among a sample of older children.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Multisensory integration and maternal sensitivity are related to each other and predictive of expressive vocabulary in 24-month-olds
    Bruce, Madeleine D.; Panneton, Robin K.; Taylor, Caroline (Elsevier, 2021-10-05)
    Multisensory integration (MSI) is the ability to combine temporally synchronous, amodally specified sensory information to create rich, coordinated perceptual experiences. In early development, attention is directed toward such information in both social contexts (e.g., human speakers) and nonsocial contexts (e.g., multimodal toys). Parenting behaviors may support and sculpt multisensory integration by providing children with opportunities to experience amodally specified information (e.g., contingent face-to-face interactions). This study examined (a) whether 24-month-olds’ MSI abilities differed as a function of context (social or nonsocial) and competition for attention (low or high), (b) whether MSI predicted expressive vocabulary, and (c) whether maternal sensitivity (MS) was related to both MSI and language. A total of 32 24-month-olds were tested in the Multisensory Attention Assessment Protocol, an audiovisual task that presents laterally positioned social/nonsocial events with and without a central distractor. Their mothers completed the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories and participated in a free-play period with their children for MS coding. Results showed MSI in both social and nonsocial conditions (i.e., toddlers paid more attention to the “match”), but only the ability to maintain attention to the social match was related to toddlers’ expressive vocabulary. In addition, MS was positively correlated with toddlers’ expressive language and social MSI performance. Taken together, the pattern of results shows important relations between emerging integration abilities and parenting behavior as well as the ability of both factors to positively influence word learning during early toddlerhood.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Multisensory Integration in Social and Nonsocial Events and Emerging Language in Toddlers
    Bruce, Madeleine D. (Virginia Tech, 2019-12)
    Multisensory integration enables young children to combine information across their senses to create rich, coordinated perceptual experiences. Events with high intersensory redundancy across the senses provide salient experiences which aid in the integration process and facilitate perceptual learning. Thus, this study’s first objective was to evaluate if toddlers’ multisensory integration abilities generalize across social/nonsocial conditions, and if multisensory integration abilities predict 24-month-old’s language development. Additionally, previous research has not examined contextual factors, such as socioeconomic status or parenting behaviors, that may influence the development of multisensory integration skills. As such, this study’s second aim was to evaluate whether maternal sensitivity and SES moderate the proposed relationship between multisensory integration and language outcomes. Results indicated that toddlers’ multisensory integration abilities, F(1,33) = 4.191, p = .049, but not their general attention control skills, differed as a function of condition (social or nonsocial), and that social multisensory integration significantly predicted toddlers’ expressive vocabularies at 24-months old, β = .530, p = .007. However, no evidence was found to suggest that SES or maternal sensitivity moderated the detected relationship between multisensory integration abilities and language outcomes; rather, mothers’ maternal sensitivity scores directly predicted toddlers’ expressive language outcomes, β = .320, p = .044, in addition to their social multisensory integration skills. These findings suggest that at 24-months of age, both sensitive maternal behaviors and the ability to integrate social multisensory information are important to the development of early expressive language outcomes.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Setting the stage: Biopsychosocial predictors of early childhood externalizing behaviors
    Phillips, Jennifer J.; Bruce, Madeleine D.; Bell, Martha Ann (Wiley, 2023-05)
    Research has indicated that biological (self-regulation), psychological (temperament), and social (maternal parenting behaviors) factors predict childhood externalizing behaviors. Few studies, however, have evaluated psychological, biological, and social factors in conjunction as predictors of childhood externalizing behaviors. Further, limited research has examined whether these biopsychosocial predictors during infancy and toddlerhood predict the onset of externalizing behaviors in early childhood. The present study aimed to examine the longitudinal relations between biopsychosocial predictors of child externalizing behaviors. Children and their mothers (n = 410) participated when children were 5, 24, and 36 months old. Child self-regulation was assessed via baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) at age 5 months, and child psychology was measured via maternal report of effortful control at age 24 months. Additionally, maternal intrusiveness was assessed during a mother-child interaction at age 5 months. At 36 months, mothers reported on child externalizing behaviors. Longitudinal path modeling was used to examine the direct and indirect effects of maternal intrusiveness and child effortful control on child externalizing behavior, as well as whether these effects were conditional upon child baseline RSA. Results showed a significant indirect effect of maternal intrusiveness on externalizing behavior through effortful control, and this pathway was moderated by baseline RSA after controlling for orienting regulation at age 5 months. These results suggest that early childhood externalizing behaviors are jointly affected by biological, psychological, and social factors during toddlerhood.