A recent study published in Developmental Science has discovered a connection between prolonged pacifier use and reduced vocabulary size in infants at both 12 and 24 months of age. The study indicates that extended use of pacifiers may negatively impact language development, with later pacifier use showing a stronger association with smaller vocabulary sizes compared to earlier use.
The use of pacifiers is widespread among young children across the globe, often valued for their soothing effects on infants. While pacifiers are recommended by health organizations for reducing the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and can provide comfort, concerns have emerged regarding their potential impact on a child’s development, particularly language acquisition.
Previous research has mainly focused on the physical impacts of pacifier use, such as dental misalignments and increased risk of ear infections. However, the potential effects on language development have received less attention. This study aimed to fill that gap by investigating whether sustained pacifier use could disrupt early speech perception and language development by restricting the movements of the mouth and tongue.
“Our interest was sparked by a study by Bruderer et al. (2015) showing that infants had difficulty distinguishing sounds when their tongues were blocked by a teether. We wanted to investigate if prolonged pacifier use might eventually lead to differences in how quickly children learn words,” explained study author Luis Eduardo Muñoz, a PhD candidate at the University of Oslo.
For their study, the researchers recruited parents of infants from Oslo, Norway, through birth registries, covering the period from 2019 to 2020. Initially, the study included 1,630 participants, but after applying specific inclusion criteria, such as monolingual exposure to Norwegian, being born full-term, and having no reported visual, auditory, or cognitive impairments, the final sample consisted of 1,187 infants.
To assess vocabulary size, parents completed an online questionnaire that included the Norwegian versions of the Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs). For 12-month-old infants, the CDIs measured both vocabulary comprehension and production, while for 24-month-olds, it measured vocabulary production only. Comprehension refers to the ability of infants to understand and recognize words when they hear them, while production refers to the ability to actively use words in speech.
Parents also provided detailed reports of their child’s daytime pacifier use. They retrospectively estimated the average daily use in whole hours for two-month intervals from birth until the assessment date. This allowed the researchers to calculate the total hours of pacifier use over the infants’ lifetimes, referred to as Lifespan Pacifier Use (LPU).
The researchers uncovered a significant negative association between sustained pacifier use and vocabulary size in both 12- and 24-month-old infants. Specifically, for 12-month-olds, an increase in pacifier use by one standard deviation (about 1.8 hours daily) was linked to a reduction in vocabulary comprehension and production percentiles by 2.9 and 2.6 percentiles, respectively. For 24-month-olds, a similar increase in pacifier use corresponded to a 2.4 percentile decrease in vocabulary production.
The researchers also explored how changes in pacifier use over time influenced vocabulary development. They found that infants with increasing pacifier use as they aged had lower vocabulary sizes compared to those with declining or stable pacifier use. This effect was observed even after controlling for the total amount of pacifier use.
Notably, the impact of pacifier use was stronger when it occurred later in infancy. For instance, 24-month-olds with higher pacifier use between 18 and 24 months were 3.6 percentiles lower in vocabulary production compared to their peers.
Further analysis focused on the most recent period of pacifier use before the infants’ second birthday. The results showed that greater pacifier use between 22 and 24 months increased the likelihood of infants scoring in the lower 15th percentile for vocabulary size at 24 months. Specifically, an increase of one standard deviation in pacifier use during this period raised the odds of being in the lower percentile by a factor of 1.4.
“We found it interesting that recent pacifier use (within the last two months) had the strongest link to smaller vocabulary sizes, indicating the potential significance of the most recent amount of pacifier use,” Muñoz told PsyPost.
However, it is important to note that the study’s design does not allow for establishing a causal relationship between pacifier use and vocabulary development. The study is cross-sectional, meaning it looks at data from a single point in time rather than following the same children over an extended period.
While this can show associations or correlations between variables, it cannot determine whether one factor directly causes another. In other words, while the study found a link between prolonged pacifier use and smaller vocabulary sizes, it cannot definitively say that pacifier use causes reduced vocabulary development.
“Our study doesn’t provide evidence that pacifiers themselves cause slower word learning, but it does suggest a link between frequent pacifier use and smaller vocabularies at ages 1- and 2-years-old,” Muñoz explained. “There could be many other factors at play, such as parenting styles or the child’s temperament.”
To better examine the potential for causality, researchers could conduct longitudinal studies, which track the same group of children over several years. This approach allows researchers to observe how changes in pacifier use over time might influence vocabulary development.
“We aim to further explore how pacifier use, parenting styles, and children’s temperament interact to affect word learning,” Muñoz said. “Pacifier use is a culturally sensitive topic, and we don’t want this study to stigmatize parents who use them. There are valid reasons for pacifier use (soothing), and our findings should not be taken as a reason to discourage it.”
The study, “Sustained pacifier use is associated with smaller vocabulary sizes at 1 and 2 years of age: A cross-sectional study,” was authored by Luis E. Muñoz, Natalia Kartushina, and Julien Mayor.
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There are a lot of linux people out there who are…very odd. I ran into a bunch who laughed at the thought of a gui terminal server - something i’ve been working with professionally for over two decades. Some really don’t understand jack nor shit and just parrot half-truths and poor knowledge like it’s gospel. “Don’t uninstall apps, you’ll break shit!!” No, uninstalling apps improperly breaks shit…
/rant
(Btw if i see one more person wail about how terrifying it is to run DD ima choke a bitch…)
Bottom line: Konami is a weird company making odd calls and has been for a long time. Someone in charge likely decided 11 years ago that MGRR should not be released on PC in Japan and that’s all there is to it.
Most of my friends were generally similar: straight-shooters, into science, and unique.
I had a friend whose kid I related to so much, that eventho I am generally pretty bad with kids, they used to ask me for advice on how to address certain issues with him.
When I was at a farmer’s market, I saw some toys that looked interesting. I asked the salesperson what they were for, and she responded saying that they were for autistic kids because it helps them calm down. I seriously said, “Man, those autistic kids know what’s up.” I bought two of the toys. One was for the kid mentioned above, and the other was for me.
A year later, a friend that is a psychologist tells me that I’m autistic. I get a formal evaluation just to make sure, and yep, I’m certainly autistic. For the next year, all these odd experiences in my life start to make sense:
I tell my friends and they said that they are autistic too and thought I knew because it was so obvious.
I learn that flappy hands is an autism thing. The kid mentioned flapped his hands whenever he would get excited. They weren’t necessarily asking me how to raise their kid. They were asking me for advice with autistic traits and issues.
They toy was a fidget toy, and I bought one for myself because it was soothing… because I am autistic and adhd.
Not a great analogy honestly, you can drive a car your whole life and your odds of dying in a car accident are probably like 1%. Meanwhile your odds of dying, or at the very least having very serious health effects, from using hard drugs your whole life are basically guaranteed.
In a two party system, populist movements grow when the opposition party is failing (or is perceived as failing) people. Alternatively, both parties can fail the people before one becomes populist.
The two party system has failed Americans. But now that the republicans have created a populist movement, the failure of democrats to properly serve many people causes them to be pulled by populism. It doesn’t help that the culture war lets absolue horseshit issues fly by without actual basis in reality, since that fuels the fire without actually having to do the hard discussions about policy.
The MAGA movement is a “third way” that formed because the paths forward shown by both democrats and republicans seemed to lead to nowhere for many people.
I don’t think this is a cancer, I think this is a horrendous feature of the design of a representative democracy under capitalism (at least, in the American sense)
Capitalism will crush people while trying to wring every bit of profit out of them, and in a capitalist democracy, the state supports capitalism.
Representative democracy leads to unaccountable representatives. They still need to get re-elected if they want to (or they could just serve capital and dip), but with all the dogmatism caused by political parties, the hierarchy of the parties protecting the politician, and the benefits of having corporate sugar daddies, especially media corporations, they can get away with enriching themselves at the expense of Americans, while still having decent odds at reelection.
Further, people in power, for whatever reason gave this tendency to build their power, usually at the expense of those without it. The state gives itself new powers and new toys at the expense of everyone else. Fear of terrorism gave us some of the most draconian laws on the books, such as the patriot act, which has not been repealed whenever there has been an opportunity to. The police got afraid of the people, and bought themselves guns, counterinsurgency training and tools from a foreign apartheid state, armored cars, and raises. The supreme court went from writing itself into existence to giving the president near legal immunity, rolling out the red carpet for the authoritarian state to become an even more authoritarian state.
When you mix these tendencies together, its no wonder why this state has failed. And while it hasn’t failed everyone, the nature of capitalism leads to a pretty large exploited class ripe for exploitation. And this populist movement is ready to take advantage of that, between those primed by culture war drivel, economic suffering, or seeing their demographic and/or class lose power in some way.
This populism isn’t a cancer on an ailing democracy.
It is a symptom of a failing democracy, unable to sustain itself from the structure of itself.
Against all odds, the socdems beat the liberals and reduced a surging far-right to an embarrassing third place. French fascists are stomping on their berets and cartoonishly snapping baguettes in half.
I blame the news for starting that “wOkE” shenanigans. The National Hurricane Center has been using the exact same naming convention since 1953, primarily to make tracking different storms easier. The names start with A at the beginning of the storms season, and ascend alphabetically, alternating gender. Additionally, even years start with a male name, odd years start with a female name. I highly doubt a bunch of scientists really give two shits about the naming convention when they’re really just trying to tell your dumb ass, “Hey, a storm’s coming.”
Also, Beryl is an old school woman’s name. Get the net. The previous storm was named Alberto, the next one will be Chris. These lists are predetermined many years in advance.
There’s a fine line between being allowed to have your phone in school and mitigating its usage. I don’t entirely disagree with you, but I do think you’re being a bit too… Strong, about your stance.
When I was in middle school, phones were banned through and through. Weren’t allowed to be on, weren’t allowed out, etc. One day I think at lunch period, I was digging through my backpack while walking and the phone flew out of the bag. It was confiscated by the jerk volunteer and given to the principal, and I had to get it with my parents after school. It’s was embarrassing and I knew it was wrong because I had done nothing wrong. This fits to your point.
Everyone involved with a rational mind knew it was bullshit. However, this was also the same school that had major issues with gang violence. We had a (pretty reasonable) dress code policy that involved no local gang colors - no red, no blue, no purple. Phone were banned because there had been a driveby shooting that was called in by a gang affiliated student who got into an argument. From their perspective, they wanted to take no chances from insane 11-13 year olds who were already smoking weed and active in gangs.
I grew up in the ghetto where school is the only opportunity for people to get out of a terrible situation. My high schools graduating class was the first to have reached over 74% graduation rate in over a decade. This school (literally nicknamed Jail For Kids), had actual students with probation officers. We had multiple lockdowns monthly, almost all of which were due to people with weapons and police activity nearby.
The point I’m getting at is that, to an extent, schools absolutely mold and shape the status quo. However, it’s completely wrong to make the assumption that all schools feed into the prison industrial complex. In my area, school was the one chance a kid who grew up slinging had to get out, and for many in my class it was.
I agree with you that schools have a number of issues, but from what I’ve read here today I don’t entirely agree about your stance, from having grown up in and worked with schools like this as an adult. And to get back on topic, students not being allowed to use their phones during class is not a bad thing. During lunchtime, I agree a ban is too much, however I can also understand wanting to keep students socialized with each other. That 30 minutes during lunch doesn’t need to be spent on your phone, when you have the rest of your day at home to do so.
After Covid, in my area, this dynamic changed entirely. By the time I came back from college and started working, kids weren’t involved in that anymore. Middle school was completely normal, kids weren’t affiliated with gangs, had no idea what weed was, let alone the other stuff. But the one thing they all had in common was the debilitating addiction to their phone. You can’t go 5 minutes without seeing a child smashing their finger on the screen, in classes, during lunch, after school, on the bus. Just walking around with their eyes glued to their phone.
And I get it, I’ve been a screen kid too. I’ve always loved tech and games, still spend way too much time on it. But as a kid we had more options, our entire lives weren’t spent engaging through the phone, whereas now that is how you have to engage with others. When we had playtime growing up, only a portion of it was spent on the PlayStation and a majority of the rest was imagination and exploring. Then when we were done, I’d explore the Internet on a laptop with Neopets, Gamefaqs, or Gaia Online.
To me, it seems that the intent is pretty obvious. Students have had a really difficult time being properly engaged in school due to how poor quality the level of schooling had become from the changes after 2016 that were made from the Secretary of Education, then further floundered through Covid. When schools came back into session, the level of dependency to phones has grown exponentially, and these students abilities to go without have been shortened drastically.
If the one common trend among all these students is that poor support during a critical period of education led to the overabundance of cell phone dependence, doesn’t it make sense to consider banning it, to at least try and see if it results in a positive change?
From what I’ve read from you, it seems like the answer would be no, because it’s taking away the freedom. Which, sure. But shouldn’t we also make as many efforts as possible to prepare our students? If the options are 1) teach people or 2) let them ignore it and spend all their time doing nothing, wouldn’t we choose to avoid option 2?
The way I have experienced it, we need to allow for healthy technological exploration while encouraging the focus on school studies. Right now, I’m honestly more on the side FOR banning phones from schools because I’ve seen firsthand the way students use them. When I was in highschool, it was common for people to put in headphones and ignore the teacher, and it was common for the teacher to put them on blast for it. When I go to do my job at the schools, it is a majority of the students using headphones or their phone during class to ignore the teacher. The teachers can’t do anything about it, the parents don’t care, and so what options are left? We just let our youth grow up going to school for 12 years ignoring every part of it?
That’s a recipe for disaster. We’re already seeing the effects of this with Gen Z entering the workplace (and I don’t mean your standard retail or 9-5, I work in performing arts) and while many have been beyond amazing, there are a few who clearly are struggling. I worry this will be the case as more younger generations begin trying to navigate their career choices. As I said at the beginning, there is a clear line between trying to motivate the usage of phones in spaces where their presence isn’t needed, and outright controlling people. In my opinion, mitigating cell phone usage in students isn’t an attempt at control. It’s an attempt at giving students a chance to thrive.
Btw: I definitely think we should adjust curriculums to allow for more engaging education. For some odd reason, the usage of cell phones in certain classes is way, way down. For example, yearbook, art, music, and digitally related classes (hardware/software) almost none of the students pull out their phone during class. Almost as if having students engaged in something they are interested in is a way to mitigate them using their phones to entertain themselves. I can’t imagine why. (/////S)
Instead we are seeing further funding cuts to these programs, so that’s great…
If you haven’t heard of it, this island has a population that the world has collectively decided to leave alone, mostly because they have proven, on multiple occasions, that they absolutely do not want visitors. Like, arrow-to-death anyone attempting to land or even visit near their shores....
My usual go to drive layout, when it’s impractical to put everything on a single drive, is to have a fast, but small, OS drive with core applications, if it’s large enough then also use that for user data. Add in drives for anything/everything else size intensive. Like for games, I’ll get a lower quality SSD that’s larger than my OS drive, like grabbing a SATA SSD that’s 3-4 TiB for games, with a 500GiB NVMe OS drive for programs and user data.
If money is tight, then having your fastest storage for OS and using a HDD for everything else, is a decent option…
For a while there I was running a 240GiB OS drive, and relocated all my user data, and games to a 1TiB HDD. The system ran fine like that, with few exceptions.
One big issue was that major windows updates basically failed every time, it would seem that having your user account/profile anywhere other than C:\ is problematic for that kind of thing. It’s odd, but ultimately not that big of a deal. Regular security updates and whatnot worked without any issues.
So nitpicking it is. (also it’s odd that the Surgeon General is making a statement in 2024 that doesn’t use any data newer than 2020 - so odd, that I doubt your claim is correct.)
I don’t really like roguelites. At least I always thought. The only one I really tried was the Binding of Isaac. I never progressed far, I never really got the hang of it and had a lot of unsuccessful runs. I finally gave up on it. So I went for years without trying new ones. Until Hades. I played it quite a lot and had a lot...
That’s cool! Always cool to read when someone finds an entry point to broadening their gaming horizons!
I’d highly recommend
Enter the Gungeon
Nuclear Throne
FTL
The top two are fun frantic top-down shooters where you can feel yourself getting better between runs, barring terrible RNG luck of course. (But fighting against the odds is cool too.)
FTL is just a very “tight” experience. I’m sure other games have perhaps improved on its principles but it’s focused and knows exactly what it wants to be.
Let me state some basic facts from the perspective of a small farmer. I see here so many odd notions about why TSC’s stance seemingly doesn’t matter much. Too many buy into the stereo type of rural = straight, white, male and that somehow small farms that might tend to shop more at TSC don’t count for much.
TSC’s customer demographics - you might be surprised to hear - do actually cover a lot of small-scale farms. This report says they average $43k in farm income and are about 441 acres - I acknowledge they are just taking USDA numbers here and extrapolating but this accords with my own experience as a small farmer. A few of us up here prefer to hit the more specialized ag stores in the Central Valley but the TSC is closer and so for a lot of immediate needs we buy there. I’ve even purchased tractor implements at TSC.
The stereotype of the rural butch lesbian (hi!) is not without substance. Over 3 million LGBTQIA+ people live in rural areas of the US.
For what it’s worth, it’s really hard to read this post (which you seem to have put some actual effort into) because you’re writing it with odd abbreviations and slang. I know you’re trying to be edgy or something but when you have something worthwhile to say, it’s best to communicate it in a way that the majority of people who run across it can understand, rather than wrap it in what effectively amounts to lingo and jargon.
Cross shoulder, right shoulder to left hip. A friend once told me that is how gay people carry their bags, but my self-consciousness is not fragile enough to give up comfort for the odd chance of being considered homosexual. Anyway, that and in summer shorts with a t-, polo- or regular shirt, in winter long trousers (not jeans usually) with sweater and a jacket. Nothing special, really.
You make good points, but I still think what I envision would be able to attract enough people interested in specific hobbies, without achieving anywhere near Youtube’s scale. I’m thinking of a scenario where the video platform is more an extension of a web community, such an an old-school forum, rather than a straight video host where the primary aim is to gain any engagement whatsoever, and where (let’s face it) all engagement is generally fungible. It’d be something member-funded and run, like good torrent trackers, and the content is an interest ‘ecosystem’ - so not only fishing content, but fishing gear coverage, and camping and hiking stuff, and meat prep and storage, and boating, etc.
This couldn’t be any worse for either creator or viewer than what YT subjects them to. There would be no having to optimize for an opaque algorithm. The pressure to self-censor would be greatly relieved. Monetization scope and content guidelines would be accountably managed - ie. by the community itself. Creators would still have their Patreon/Liberapay/etc income streams. The platform can place the odd banner ad too, like 4chan.
I wonder how much convenience and (perceived) income security is a passionate creator prepared to sacrifice in order to start exercising power over Youtube by uploading elsewhere? We all know creators hate the place…
What are the applications that I can remove from Mint? + Mini Rant.
What are the packages that comes default with Linux Mint Cinnamon that I can remove without any problems....
Konami is intent on region locking Japanese players out of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (automaton-media.com)
Anon vibes with his gf's brother (sh.itjust.works)
Anon is anti drugs (sh.itjust.works)
Pope Francis Decries Populism and Says There’s a ‘Cancer’ Ailing Democracy (www.thedailybeast.com)
Schiff says Biden has to ‘win overwhelmingly’ or pass the torch, adds VP Harris could win against Trump (www.nbcnews.com)
Rare Fr*nch W. France’s left-wing parties projected to finish first in parliamentary elections, keep far right at bay. (www.nbcnews.com)
Against all odds, the socdems beat the liberals and reduced a surging far-right to an embarrassing third place. French fascists are stomping on their berets and cartoonishly snapping baguettes in half.
The guy has his priorities super straight
Context: newsweek.com/donald-trump-jr-rages-non-binary-hur…
Title (lemmy.world)
Humans didn't invent agriculture
Why are US states, school districts banning smartphones in schools? (www.aljazeera.com)
The "Worst PlayStation RPG Ever" Is Getting A Fan Translation | Time Extension (www.timeextension.com)
Ancient Roman - Power of the Dark Side: Getting a Fan Translation...
Would Sentinel Island still be untouched in the Star Trek Universe?
If you haven’t heard of it, this island has a population that the world has collectively decided to leave alone, mostly because they have proven, on multiple occasions, that they absolutely do not want visitors. Like, arrow-to-death anyone attempting to land or even visit near their shores....
priorities (lemmy.world)
In Ukraine, Killings of Surrendering Russians Divide an American-Led Unit (www.nytimes.com)
Volunteers who lived in NASA’s Mars simulation for over a year will finally emerge today (www.engadget.com)
Four killed in Kentucky mass shooting before suspect turned gun on himself (www.independent.co.uk)
My (re)discovery of roguelites
I don’t really like roguelites. At least I always thought. The only one I really tried was the Binding of Isaac. I never progressed far, I never really got the hang of it and had a lot of unsuccessful runs. I finally gave up on it. So I went for years without trying new ones. Until Hades. I played it quite a lot and had a lot...
These queer farmers and ranchers are boycotting Tractor Supply and want you to join them (www.advocate.com)
Trump asks judge to gut classified documents case after immunity ruling (www.theguardian.com)
Fellas of Lemmy, what's your Every Day Carry (EDC)?
Those who don’t identify as a fella also welcome to answer!...
Youtube stopped working for me today when using uBlock Origin in Firefox or Vivaldi with anti-ad enabled. (lemmy.world)
Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Prodigy | 2x11 & 2x12 "Last Flight of the Protostar"
This is the c/startrek discussion thread for “Last Flight of the Protostar” - join the conversation in the replies!...