Publications
A multidimensional investigation of pretend play and language competence: Concurrent and longitudinal relations in preschoolers
Cognitive Development 54, 100870, 2020
Erim Kızıldere, Aslı Aktan-Erciyes, Deniz Tahiroğlu, Tilbe Göksun
Abstract
Play is an important tool for children's social interactions and cognitive skills. The current study examines the links between pretend play and language in 119 Turkish preschoolers at two time points tested one-year apart (Time 1 Mage = 45.82 months and Time 2 Mage = 57.68 months). Preschoolers' language competence (linguistic complexity and receptive vocabulary) was assessed along with several pretend play measures (telephone task, imaginary pantomime task, pretense score from a free play session).
View PublicationMotor skills, language development, and visual processing in preterm and full-term infants
Current Psychology, 1-13, 2022
Mert Kobaş, Erim Kızıldere, Işıl Doğan, Aslı Aktan-Erciyes, Ö. Ece Demir-Lira, İpek Akman, Tilbe Göksun
Abstract
Language development is intertwined with motor development. This study examined how visual processing might mediate the relation between language development and motor skills in preterm (PT, n = 34, Mean gestational age = 30 weeks) and full-term infants (FT, n = 35, Mean gestational age = 38.9 weeks) at 13 months of age. Infants' visual processing, fine and gross motor skills were tested using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning.
View PublicationFrom woof woof to dog: Interactions between parents' use of sound symbolic words and infants' vocabulary development
Infancy 27 (5), 972-996, 2022
Erim Kızıldere, Şeref Can Esmer, Tilbe Göksun
Abstract
Sound symbols, such as "woof woof" for a dog's barking, imitate the physical properties of their referents. Turkish is a sound symbolically rich language that allows flexible use of such words in different linguistic forms. The current study examined Turkish‐speaking parents' use of sound symbolic words to their 14‐ and 20‐month‐olds and the concurrent and longitudinal relations between parents' sound symbolic input and infants' vocabulary knowledge.
View PublicationMotion event representation in L1-Turkish versus L2-English speech and gesture: Relations to eye movements for event components
International Journal of Bilingualism 27 (1), 61-86, 2023
Aslı Aktan-Erciyes, Emir Akbuğa, Erim Kızıldere, Tilbe Göksun
Abstract
We investigated interrelations among speech, co-speech gestures, and visual attention in first language (L1)-Turkish second language (L2)-English speakers' descriptions of motion events. We asked whether young adults differed in their spoken, gestural expressions, and visual attention toward event components of manner (how an action is performed) and path (the trajectory of an action) after controlling for their L2 proficiency.
View PublicationSmashing verb learning through parental sound symbolic input in preterm and full-term children
Language Acquisition 31 (3-4), 284-305, 2024
Şeref Can Esmer, Erim Kızıldere, Tilbe Göksun
Abstract
Sound symbolism, the iconic link between speech sounds and meanings, helps children's verb learning. In sound symbolically rich languages such as Turkish, hearing sound symbolic words might facilitate early verb learning and later language-specific expressions of motion events, by providing an easier way to map verbs onto events. These links could be much stronger for children who had difficulties in word-referent mapping (e.g., preterm children).
View PublicationPlaying minds: Parental pretend play input and infants' vocabulary development
International Journal of Behavioral Development 49 (1), 26-37, 2025
Erim Kızıldere, Tilbe Göksun
Abstract
This longitudinal study investigated parents' different pretend play behaviors (substitution, animation, and role enactment) to their infants during free play and the bidirectional links with infants' vocabulary development at 14 months (Time-1: N = 34, Mage = 14.23 months) and 20 months (Time-2: N = 34, Mage = 20.33 months), assessed by parental reports.
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