Sitting and Caregiver Speech Input in Typically Developing Infants and Infants with Cerebral Palsy

Authors

• Kari S. Kretch, University of Southern CaliforniaFollow
• Emily C. Marcinowski, Louisiana State University
• Natalie A. Koziol, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Regina T. Harbourne, Duquesne University
• Lin-Ya Hsu, University of Washington - Seattle Campus
• Michele A. Lobo, University of Delaware
• Sandra L. Willett, Colorado Mesa University
• Stacey C. Dusing, University of Southern California

ORCID IDs

Kretch https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8678-1749

Lobo https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2892-7687

Willett https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2760-4237

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2025

Citation

PLOS One (2025) 20: e0324106

doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0324106

Comments

Open access

License: CC BY 4.0

Abstract

The development of independent sitting is associated with language development, but the learning experiences underlying this relationship are not well understood. Additionally, it is unknown how these processes play out in infants with motor impairments and delays in sitting development. We examined the real-time associations between sitting and caregiver speech input in 28 5–7-month-old infants with typical development and 22 7–16-month-old infants with cerebral palsy who were at a similar stage of early sitting development. We hypothesized that object labels would be more likely to co-occur with moments of optimal attention to the labeled object while sitting than while in other positions. Infants were video recorded in five minutes of free play with a caregiver. Coders transcribed caregivers’ speech, identified instances of object labeling, and coded infants’ and caregivers’ attentional states during object labeling episodes. We found that caregivers labeled more objects while infants were sitting than while they were in other positions. However, object labels were not more likely to co-occur with infant attention, infant multimodal attention, or coordinated visual attention to the labeled object during sitting. Infants with cerebral palsy were exposed to fewer labels and were less likely to be attending to objects as they were labeled than infants with typical development. Our findings shed light on a possible pathway connecting sitting and language in typical and atypical development.