DINA Study

Dynamics of Early Language Environments

What is DINA?

This research project will provide new insights into how young bilinguals learn two languages. What do bilingual parents do that helps their infants understand and say words in two languages? Most studies of early language development have examined children learning only one language, but millions of children in the U.S. grow up learning two or more languages! This research project will produce a richer and more inclusive understanding of early learning. The findings from this study will help parents, teachers, speech-language therapists, and doctors support the development of young bilinguals.

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What tasks will we conduct in this study?

Experimenters will travel to families' homes to record a play session and snack time between children and their caregivers. We will also interview parents regarding their language use, parenting style, and cultural background.

Want to participate in our study?

Great! Contact us at our lab email: languagelab@ucdavis.edu or text/call 530-212-7318 to join our subject pool. For in-home visits, families will receive a $75 gift card after completing the questionnaires and tasks!

Language Mixing and Why We Study It

Previous language studies have found mixed findings on the effects of language mixing (or code switching) during development! Language mixing has been associated with possible benefits, such as faster cognitive function, better vocabulary skills, and an overall improvement of cognitive functioning. Although, there are other findings that believe exposure to multiple languages can limit early word recognition in infants. Our goal is to find concrete evidence on the effects of language mixing!

Language Mixing in Social Media

How We study Language mixing

As part of our study, we show infants two images and ask them to locate a specific object! We ask these questions in English and Spanish.

"Where is the apple?"

"¿Dónde está la manzana?"

Infants perform the task again while switching languages within the question!

Above is an example of switching languages within a sentence.

Our Predictions

Our study's data collection is ongoing. As we continue collecting and analyzing data, we expect to find extremely valuable evidence on the effects of language mixing on language development! We predict that there will be mixed findings relative to age, and that older infants will display more variation in relation to language mixing in the home. We are excited to continue searching for these answers and share our findings along the way!

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