The Baby Language Lab at the University of Manitoba
190 Dysart Rd R3T 2N2 Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Have you been feeling anxious, panicky, or worried during pregnancy or after giving birth? A new research project at the University of Manitoba is offering a free, 6-week, online, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy program for pregnant and postpartum persons experiencing anxiety. This program will teach users strategies to manage their anxiety and may help reduce feelings of worry, panic, or nervousness. For more information, please visit www.overcomingperinatalanxiety.ca or contact the research team at [email protected]

Homelessness is known to be a global epidemic, but what is often forgotten is its impact on infants and toddlers. This article reviews the small amount of literature on homeless infants and toddlers, focusing on topics from its impact on infant development and health, to its association with future mental health problems and behavioural issues. Of particular note in our lab, authors mention language delays are common for infants who experience homelessness. The paper hopes to highlight the gaps of knowledge in this area. https://www.sciencedirect.com//artic/pii/S0163638321000990

This blog post from the International Congress of Infant Studies summarizes research on the role of fathers in infants' development, and how it can differ from mothers. For example, fathers tend to be more direct and ask more questions when children are learning language, promoting more ‘back-and-forth’ communication, while mothers' speech may be slower and more exaggerated which promotes language processing. Of course there are also many similarities between mothers and fathers, especially the importance both place on their role as parent. As the role of fathers in caregiving increases and family structures become more diverse, it is important to study fathers in their unique ways of contributing to infant development. https://infantstudies.org/beyond-a-paycheck-fathers-other-/

Dr. Soderstrom will be joining the Women’s Health Clinic to host a free webinar on how to support your child’s development. This event will focus on how, when and what your baby learns about language and speech! Email [email protected] to learn more and register!

The Baby Language Lab regretfully marks the loss of Dr. Lila Gleitman, a true pioneer in the field of child language development. Her influence can be found in just about every aspect of the work we do today.

Exciting news for Nunavut residents! Microsoft’s popular text translation software will now include the language Inuktitut. This language is spoken by 70% of those living in Nunavut and 40,000 Inuit Canadians. Integrating this language into widely-used technology is a great way to preserve the language and allow accessibility.

Meet Abby, an Honours Student in the Baby Language Lab! We’re cheering her on as she presents her thesis proposal this week! Abby’s thesis explores how a mother’s age, as well as their knowledge of infant development, might influence the frequency she uses music with her child.

After a brief hiatus, we are once again looking for mothers with infants to participate in a study looking at how smartphones affect infants' language experiences! If you have a baby under 15 months old and might be willing to record audio in your home for at least 4 hours, you can email us at [email protected] for more information. We look forward to hearing from you! (Please note: the post caption has been edited to include the correct e-mail address you can contact us at)

Meet Cindy, an Honours Student in the Baby Language Lab! We want to wish her the best of luck in her thesis proposal presentation next week! Cindy’s thesis will explore if the syntactic complexity of caregiver speech to infants varies with family socioeconomic status.

Pandemic restrictions have made it challenging for second-hand stores, but we see that the "Nearly New Shop" is back open for business. This thrift shop is a non-profit charity organized by the Children's Hospital Foundation of Manitoba (which has funded some of our research). Donations are accepted at the back door or you can check out their shopping hours! See their Facebook page for details: https://m.facebook.com/wpgnearlynew

October is pregnancy and infant loss awareness month. We at the Baby Language Lab want to take the time to acknowledge the indescribable hurt that families go through when a loss like this occurs. Our heart goes out to you.

We are delighted to announce that we are actively recruiting participants for a new study at the Baby Language Lab. This study will explore how smartphone use affects babies’ daily language experiences, and is being run by graduate student Mercedes Casar. The study is fully non-contact and follows pandemic-related health guidelines. Send us an e-mail or fill out a contact form if you are interested or have any questions! https://babylanguagelab.org/contact/

Have you noticed a change in your little one's language use? A study found that when in lockdown, younger children chose to use more of their mothers’ native language than English. In a tough time, this discovery brought joy to families in multi-language households! https://www.nytimes.com//family-second-language-coronaviru

We are still actively recruiting participants for the "Smartphone Study" at the Baby Language Lab. This study explores how smartphone use affects babies’ daily language experiences, and is being run by graduate student Mercedes Casar. The study is fully non-contact and follows pandemic-related health guidelines. Send us an e-mail or fill out a contact form if you are interested or have any questions! *Please note that we now have an option for a shorter participation (4 hours of recording) to accommodate the busy schedule of many of our participating families. https://babylanguagelab.org/contact/

This thought provoking article asks the question why is the language in children’s nursery rhymes/games so nonsensical and dark?. Rhymes such as ‘ring around the rosie’ may demonstrate the resilience of children. Games such as ‘cooties’ can be a way of making sense of confusing or difficult times. Take a look at this interesting read! https://daily.jstor.org/the-linguistics-of-cooties-and-oth/