Belia Margherita, Vihman Marilyn, Keren-Portnoy Tamar
Language and Linguistic Science Department, University of York, York, UK.
Infancy. 2025 Jan-Feb;30(1):e12650. doi: 10.1111/infa.12650.
Current research indicates likely developmental connections between the evolution of sleep patterns, motor skills progression, and the expansion of vocabulary. These connections are grounded in the well-established role of sleep in memory and learning, as well as in the cascading effects on language development of the acquisition of new motor skills. However, no study has so far undertaken a comprehensive and systematic examination of these connections or explored their developmental trajectory over time. Yet understanding vocabulary development depends on considering development in the sleep regulation and motor domains, to provide a biologically grounded explanation of how early lexicons are built and strengthened. This study investigates the links between vocabulary growth and two significant changes occurring over the first 2 years of life: self-initiated locomotion and the consolidation of overnight sleep. Our results reveal mutual associations between these domains, which tend to emerge during periods of marked developmental change in language, motor skills, and sleep patterns regulation. Moreover, these associations were observed to change over time, suggesting dynamic interconnections between these developmental domains. Our findings point toward the importance of investigating vocabulary development from a dynamic systems perspective, as the product of continuous interactions between cognition, the body and the environment.
当前的研究表明，睡眠模式的演变、运动技能的发展以及词汇量的扩展之间可能存在发育上的联系。这些联系基于睡眠在记忆和学习中已确立的作用，以及新运动技能的习得对语言发展的连锁效应。然而，迄今为止，尚无研究对这些联系进行全面系统的考察，也未探究它们随时间的发展轨迹。然而，理解词汇发展依赖于考虑睡眠调节和运动领域的发展情况，以便从生物学角度解释早期词汇是如何构建和强化的。本研究调查了词汇增长与生命最初两年中发生的两个重大变化之间的联系：自主运动和夜间睡眠的巩固。我们的研究结果揭示了这些领域之间的相互关联，这些关联往往出现在语言、运动技能和睡眠模式调节发生显著发育变化的时期。此外，观察到这些关联会随时间变化，表明这些发育领域之间存在动态的相互联系。我们的研究结果表明，从动态系统的角度研究词汇发展具有重要意义，因为词汇发展是认知、身体和环境之间持续相互作用的产物。
