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. / M. S. / Multisensory integration allows children to make sense of information received across their senses. Previous research has shown that events containing simultaneous and overlapping sensory information aid children in learning about objects. However, research has yet to evaluate whether children’s' multisensory integration abilities are related to language learning. Thus, this study’s first goal was to look at whether toddlers are equally skilled at integrating multisensory information in social and nonsocial contexts, and if multisensory integration skills are related to toddlers' language skills. This study’s second goal was to examine whether parenting behaviors and/or familial access to resources (i.e., socioeconomic status) play a role in the hypothesized relationship between multisensory integration and language in toddlerhood. Results indicated that toddlers show better multisensory integration abilities when viewing social as opposed to nonsocial sensory information, and that social multisensory integration skills were significantly related to their language skills. Also, maternal parenting behaviors, but not socioeconomic status, were significantly related to toddlers' language abilities. These findings suggest that at 24-months of age, both sensitive maternal parenting and the ability to integrate social multisensory information are important to the development of language in toddlerhood.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/96597 |
| Date | 12 1900 |
| Creators | Bruce, Madeleine D. |
| Contributors | Psychology, Panneton, Robin K., Bell, Martha Ann, Axsom, Danny K. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
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