Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Networks for Infant Language Acquisition Prediction

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Roxburgh, Andrew, Grasso, Floriana, Payne, Terry R.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Roxburgh, Andrew
Grasso, Floriana
Payne, Terry R.
author_facet Roxburgh, Andrew
Grasso, Floriana
Payne, Terry R.
contents Predicting the words that a child is going to learn next can be useful for boosting language acquisition, and such predictions have been shown to be possible with both neural network techniques (looking at changes in the vocabulary state over time) and graph model (looking at data pertaining to the relationships between words). However, these models do not fully capture the complexity of the language learning process of an infant when used in isolation. In this paper, we examine how a model of language acquisition for infants and young children can be constructed and adapted for use in a Spatio-Temporal Graph Convolutional Network (STGCN), taking into account the different types of linguistic relationships that occur during child language learning. We introduce a novel approach for predicting child vocabulary acquisition, and evaluate the efficacy of such a model with respect to the different types of linguistic relationships that occur during language acquisition, resulting in insightful observations on model calibration and norm selection. An evaluation of this model found that the mean accuracy of models for predicting new words when using sensorimotor relationships (0.733) and semantic relationships (0.729) were found to be superior to that observed with a 2-layer Feed-forward neural network. Furthermore, the high recall for some relationships suggested that some relationships (e.g. visual) were superior in identifying a larger proportion of relevant words that a child should subsequently learn than others (such as auditory).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_14341
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Networks for Infant Language Acquisition Prediction
Roxburgh, Andrew
Grasso, Floriana
Payne, Terry R.
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Predicting the words that a child is going to learn next can be useful for boosting language acquisition, and such predictions have been shown to be possible with both neural network techniques (looking at changes in the vocabulary state over time) and graph model (looking at data pertaining to the relationships between words). However, these models do not fully capture the complexity of the language learning process of an infant when used in isolation. In this paper, we examine how a model of language acquisition for infants and young children can be constructed and adapted for use in a Spatio-Temporal Graph Convolutional Network (STGCN), taking into account the different types of linguistic relationships that occur during child language learning. We introduce a novel approach for predicting child vocabulary acquisition, and evaluate the efficacy of such a model with respect to the different types of linguistic relationships that occur during language acquisition, resulting in insightful observations on model calibration and norm selection. An evaluation of this model found that the mean accuracy of models for predicting new words when using sensorimotor relationships (0.733) and semantic relationships (0.729) were found to be superior to that observed with a 2-layer Feed-forward neural network. Furthermore, the high recall for some relationships suggested that some relationships (e.g. visual) were superior in identifying a larger proportion of relevant words that a child should subsequently learn than others (such as auditory).
title Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Networks for Infant Language Acquisition Prediction
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.14341