The Max Planck Institute for Psycho-linguistics, in combination with others, needs your help to classify some very short recordings of babies’ speech sounds to help better understand the very first stages of language learning!
Did you know that, well before saying real words, children produce very different sounds with their mouths? Already at birth, they cry and cry. We all know these sounds! A little later, they also begin to babble - that is, produce sounds closer to those of adult speech.
We need your help to classify some very short recordings of babies’ speech sounds: a lot can be learned about their language development from some of the very first sounds that they make! To study this, researchers from LSCP and the Max Planck Institute had children aged between 3 months and 4 years wear a recorder for many hours. They then automatically extracted some clips using a computational algorithm. Often, these clips represent the sounds the child made. Sometimes there may be other sounds that are not from the baby such as a parent or a television in the background. They now need your help to dig through the clips, from wherever you might be!
Benefits to self
Engage in research, and be able to use the data. Learn about different vocalisations and how speech is formed.
Benefits to others
Help label very short clips as being one “type” of sound. Baby sounds include crying, babbling, and laughing. This is to see how children’ sounds change as they get older. You can listen to each clip as many times as you would like before making a decision.
Training available
There is an online tutorial under 'getting started'.
Transport details
Not needed