The first two years of a child’s life are crucial for their language development. But what type of language environment is helpful in establishing vocabulary during early childhood? Does the acquisition of multiple languages modify cognitive, social, and linguistic functioning in young children? These are questions that guide Associate Professor Leher Singh as she conducts research to understand language development in children and infants, as well as the influence of multilingualism on cognitive and language development.
In a recent study, she found that infants exposed to two languages adopted more efficient information processing, which indicates that exposure to bilingualism encourages fundamental aspects of early memory development. In addition, the increased flexibility shown by bilingual infants has other effects on development. This may allow them to learn new languages more efficiently and to be less prone to social stereotyping. In recent research, she examined the role of socio-economic disadvantage on infant language development. She found that even before infants begin to talk, their family’s socio-economic status predicts their language ability. However, she has also found that regardless of socio-economic status, parents who read more to their infants will bolster their infants’ language abilities.
Currently, Assoc Prof Singh is investigating the impact of bilingualism on social, cognitive and language development and identifying the risks in language development for children from disadvantaged families. She hopes that her research will be able to examine the effects of socio-economic status on language development, identify gaps in language development and implement interventions that allow all children to begin their academic journey with equal potential.
Study found that language or dialect heard during a child's first few years of life could leave a lasting effect on the brain, and early exposure to another language does not affect children’s acquisition of English.
Study found that children who were brought up in an environment where Hokkien is used as the primary language did not limit their English proficiency in later years
Learn more about the researcher who is an expert in infant speech processing, early vocabulary development and tone language acquisition
Singh, L., & Cheng, Q.Q., Yeung, J. W-J (in press). Socio-economic status predicts native speech discrimination in the first year of life. Developmental Science.
Singh, L., Yeung, W. J. J., Cheng, Q., & Heng, E. Y. T. (2023). The home literacy environment mediates effects of socio‐economic status on infant vocabulary development. Developmental Science, 26 (4), e13349.
Singh, L., Rajendra, S., & Mazuka, R. (2022). Diversity and representation in studies of infant perceptual narrowing. Child Development Perspectives, 16 (4), 191-199.
Singh, L., Cheng, Q., Tan, S. H., Tan, A., & Low, Y. L. (2022). Language acquisition in a multilingual society: English vocabulary norms and predictors in Singaporean children. Child Development, 93 (1), 288-305.
Singh, L., Quinn, P.C., Qian, M.K., & Lee, K. (2020). Bilingualism is associated with less racial bias in preschool children. Developmental Psychology, 56, 888-896.
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