Sofia Russo 1, Giulia Calignano 1, Carnovalini Filippo 2, Barbara Arfé 1, Antonio Rodà 2, Eloisa Valenza 1 1 Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Università degli Studi di Padova., Via Venezia 8 – 35131, Padova, Italy 2 Dipartimento di Ingegneria Informatica, Università degli Studi di Padova, Via Gradenigo 6/b – 35131, Padova, Italy
The ability to process rhythm is a powerful and widespread tool for the temporal encoding of sequential stimuli (Patel, 2006). During the first steps of language acquisition, infants benefit from rhythmic cues in starting to organize linguistic stimuli (Nazzi et al., 1998). Moreover, recent findings indicate atypical rhythm processing as a potential underlying impairment among different speech/language disorders (Ladànyi et al., 2020). However, nowadays models of cognitive development do not yet include rhythmic tasks in early screening programs, as further knowledge is needed on individual differences and developmental trajectories. Therefore, the present study investigates the link between rhythm sensitivity and early language abilities across infancy (10 to 30 months). In a first experiment, rhythm discrimination skills are tested through a familiarization-test paradigm. Rhythms are presented in the touch modality, through a custom-made, vibrotactile device for music perception. In a second experiment, infants are tested in a verbal-learning task. Pupillometry and looking times toward contingent visual stimuli are collected with the eye-tracker and taken as an index of attentional engagement in the two tasks. Preliminary results (20 subjects) indicate i) infants being able to discriminate between different rhythms in the touch modality, and ii) individual performances in the verbal-learning task to be related with early rhythmic skills. These results point toward a potential role of rhythmic tasks in contributing to the assessment of infants’ cognitive development, especially in the case of language acquisition, with positive impacts on early screening and training programs involving musical rhythm and multisensorial modalities.
