Language in Little Ones (LiLO) is a research study conducted by the Child Health, Development and Education (inclusive of the Fraser Mustard Centre) team at The Kids Research Institute Australia, who are based in Adelaide, South Australia. The study is a longitudinal study funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Project Grant which began in 2017 and investigates language interaction with infants and toddlers living in English-speaking households.
Specifically, the project aims to investigate the quality and quantity of language in the home environment during the first five years of life. Through this research we aim to provide Australian data on the number of words children hear and speak in the home and how this influences their later development.
This will help inform future interventions to improve language development and in turn, child health and overall development for Australian children.
In order to do this our research uses technology called Language Environment Analysis (LENA), which includes a small digital language recorder and specially designed t-shirt. LENA records the audio in the environment around the child and through specially designed software automatically counts the number of words or vocalisations spoken by the child and adults in the home. LENA has been described like a pedometer for language, whereby the technology simply provides us the number of words spoken in the home – without researchers listening to any of the audio.
Please view our Frequently Asked Questions page for more information for participants.
What the research involves
Our research will involve approximately 450 families split into two cohorts with families living in Adelaide (South Australia), Bunbury (Western Australia) and the Gold Coast (Queensland).
- The baby cohort began data collection in the second half of 2017 when children were approximately 6 months old.
- The toddler cohort began in late 2018 when children were approximately 3 years old.
Both groups of families will be visited by a research assistant once every six months until their child's first year of school.