# Characterizing the content of bilingual language in preschoolers with HL

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI CORAL GABLES · 2024 · $83,618

## Abstract

Project Summary
This Administrative Supplement will support post-baccalaureate researcher, Gabriela Gutierrez, to
receive research training through her mentored leadership of a project characterizing the bilingual
language input and bilingual language production of children with hearing loss. The Supplement builds
on parent R01 (DC018542) that gathers objective, longitudinal data to capture the vocal interactions of
children with hearing loss (HL). Inclusion of children with HL and typically hearing peers in preschool
classrooms is a national standard, but it is not clear how early vocal interaction with peers and teachers
contributes to the language development of children with and without HL. The parent R01 employs
computational models of child location and orientation to indicate when children are in social contact
with their peers and teachers. To support primary project analyses, the parent R01 characterizes
classroom speech as English and Spanish by harnessing noise-robust automatic speech recognition
tools. The parent R01 Aim 1 determines whether exposure to partner speech longitudinally predicts
children’s speech to those partners. To support that Aim, Supplement activities include a) conducting
expert (manual) transcription of R01 audio recordings in English and Spanish to determine the content
of children and teachers’ vocalizations and b) assessing the reliability of automated speech recognition
tools when compared to expert transcription. Automated speech recognition tools will include Open AI’s
Whisper, which is a privacy-preserving deep learning neural network. Ms. Gutierrez will train and
supervise a team of experts to transcribe segments of English and Spanish child and teacher speech to
quantify multiple features of classroom language. These features are mean length of utterance (MLU),
lexical diversity, questions, responsivity to partner utterances, and the alignment of teacher and child
speech, e.g., the degree to which teachers and children use the same words as their interlocutor in
responses. Ms. Gutierrez will be mentored in the selection and use of automated tools, the calculation
of reliability measures, the interpretation and write-up of study statistical results, and the intersection of
children’s bilingualism and hearing loss. As the Supplement research focuses on characterizing the
bilingual experiences in preschool classrooms,
Ms. Gutierrez’s bilingual language skills are critical for
the successful completion of the project. The training afforded to her by the Supplement will help her
accomplish her long-term objective of conducting independent research focused on language
development and bilingualism. In support of this long-term objective, Ms. Gutierrez will pursue three
Supplement goals: expand her knowledge base in language research and bilingual development (Goal
1); enhance her computational and quantitative analysis skills (Goal 2); and develop her leadership
abilities in conducting research with diverse popu...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11087933
- **Project number:** 3R01DC018542-04S2
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI CORAL GABLES
- **Principal Investigator:** DANIEL S MESSINGER
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $83,618
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2021-02-01 → 2026-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11087933

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11087933, Characterizing the content of bilingual language in preschoolers with HL (3R01DC018542-04S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11087933. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*