Our projects

Are you an expecting mother who primarily speaks other languages than Czech and are you in the 28th–38th week of pregnancy? Or are you an expecting mother who primarily speaks Czech in the 28th–38th week of pregnancy? Join our research on speech development using EEG.

Previous research has shown that shortly after birth, babies are already tuned to human speech. We are exploring the role of exposure to spoken language before birth and how a mother’s speech before and after birth influences this speech tuning.

WHAT TO EXPECT

In the first part of the experiment, before the baby is born, you will visit our lab, where we will record a small portion of your speech (approximately 20 minutes).

After your baby is born and when it’s convenient for you, you will visit us again. We will record how you speak with your baby and measure how the baby perceives speech. During the experiment, the baby will lie comfortably in a crib and sleep. Using special headphones, a fairy tale in Czech and a foreign language will be played to the baby at a comfortable volume, and special sensors will measure how the baby’s brain perceives these stories (approximately 1–1.5 hours).

The entire experiment is completely safe and non-invasive for the baby. You can watch a report by Czech Television featuring members of SPEAKin Lab to see how a similar experiment is conducted in a maternity hospital.

As a reward for participating in this experiment, you will receive 1,500 CZK (a voucher for a purchase of your choice). Participation in both parts of the experiment—before the baby is born and afterward with the baby—is required.

HOW TO SIGN UP

You can sign up using the REGISTRATION FORM or by emailing martina.dvorakova@ff.cuni.cz or babylab@ff.cuni.cz.

Photo: Vladimír Šigut, Univerzita Karlova

Is your baby 3–7 months old and monolingual or bi/multilingual? Take part in our research on early markers of dyslexia.

In this project, we are investigating early signs of dyslexia and the impact of multilingual upbringing on language development in children with a familial risk of dyslexia. To better understand this developmental trajectory, we are including infants both with and without a familial risk, as well as those growing up in monolingual and bi-/multilingual environments. As a thank-you for your participation, you will receive a voucher worth 500 CZK and a gift for your baby.

This experiment is part of a larger study on the risk of dyslexia in infants and toddlers. The study is divided into three consecutive sessions. Participation is only possible if the child takes part in all three sessions. You will receive 1500 CZK as a thank you for participating in all the sessions. You can find all the information about the study and its parts in this brochure.

WHAT TO EXPECT

The parent sits with their baby on their lap in a soundproof booth equipped with a monitor and a speaker. During the experiment, which takes about 10 minutes, audio recordings will be played through the speaker, and our team will observe and record the baby’s reactions. The entire experiment is completely safe for the baby.

We will also kindly ask the parent to fill in a short online dyslexia screening questionnaire.

HOW TO SIGN UP

You can register using the REGISTRATION FORM, where you can choose a testing date, or by emailing kynclova@praha.psu.cas.cz. If you want to participate in Olomouc, register by sending an email to babylab@upol.cz.

Photo: Vladimír Šigut, Univerzita Karlova

Is your child 12–14 months or 24–29 months old, and monolingual or bilingual? Join our research on social preferences based on accents using behavioral methods.

This research explores how a child’s native language accent influences their language-based social preferences. We also investigate the impact of multilingual upbringing on these preferences.

You can learn more about language-based social preferences in this article from Vesmír magazine, which also mentions this experiment. As a reward for participating in this experiment, you will receive 300 CZK (a voucher for Rossmann drugstore).

WHAT TO EXPECT

During the experiment, the child sits on the parent’s lap and watches screens in front of them, where speakers will be shown alternately. After the presentation of the speakers, two toys will be displayed below the videos. The child will be invited to choose which speaker to take the toy from. The entire experiment, including preparation, takes about 10 minutes.

HOW TO SIGN UP

You can sign up using the REGISTRATION FORM or by emailing lucie.jaruskova@ff.cuni.cz or babylab@ff.cuni.cz.

Photo: Martin Hundák, Univerzita Karlova

Is your child monolingual and 4-7 years old? Take part in our research on comprehension of non-native accents! Your participation will help us uncover how children at familial risk of ADHD attune to non-native accents and what helps them understand new speakers. To better understand the influence of ADHD on accent adaptation, we are looking for children at risk of ADHD as well as typically developing children. Find out more about this project in our leaflet.

WHAT TO EXPECT

During the experiment, the child sits in a quiet room and listens to a five-minute story accompanied by a video. After the video, they complete two short tasks on a touchscreen focused on matching sounds to pictures. The parent is present in the room during the whole experiment.

We use an eye-tracking method to monitor the child’s gaze. The method uses a camera placed close to the screen, which records which part of the screen the child is looking at. This method is non-invasive and safe. The device works similarly to a regular camera and does not restrict the child in any way. ​You will spend approximately 30 minutes with us in the lab, including preparation.

As a reward for participation, you will receive a drugstore voucher for 500 CZK.

HOW TO SIGN UP

You can sign up using this REGISTRATION FORM. Do you have any questions? We will be happy to answer everything at monika.kucerova@ff.cuni.cz or babylab@ff.cuni.cz.

Photo: Matěj Stránský, Respekt.cz

Are you a parent of a baby or child with a cochlear implant under the age of 7, and has it been less than 3 years since the implant was placed? Participate in a study on spoken language acquisition through an online questionnaire.

This research focuses on tracking vocabulary development in children with cochlear implants, with the possibility of follow-up surveys that allow parents to monitor their child’s vocabulary progress. As a reward for completing the questionnaire, you will receive 300 CZK (a Tesco or Rohlík e-voucher, based on your choice).

WHAT TO EXPECT

The experiment is conducted entirely online using an electronic Communication Development Questionnaire, which is the Czech adaptation of the CDI questionnaire. Parents fill out which words their child already knows.

HOW TO SIGN UP

You can sign up using the REGISTRATION FORM (please write “CI” in the notes section) or by emailing michaela.svoboda@ff.cuni.cz or babylab@ff.cuni.cz.

Are you 18-40 years old and a native Czech speaker? Participate in the study on the “cocktail party effect.”

The study investigates how the brain manages to focus on one speaker when someone else is speaking at the same time (“cocktail party effect”) and the role language plays in this process. Participants in this experiment will receive a 500 CZK gift voucher for alza.cz as a reward.

HOW THE EXPERIMENT WORKS

Participants will listen to two simultaneous streams of speech in different languages, and we will use EEG to measure how accurately the brain can track and understand the speech it is supposed to focus on.

HOW TO SIGN UP

You can sign up via the REGISTRATION FORM or by email at babylab@ff.cuni.cz.

Photo: Vladimír Šigut, Univerzita Karlova; Kateřina Chládková