Annotation Notes
Landing Page for quick information about the SEEDLingS Coding scheme
Coding
Audio guidelines are found here and video guidelines are found here.
Object
Code all concrete, imageable objects that are said to the child, or that the baby might be attending to.
What counts as directed to the child?
Include objects if you suspect that the baby is attending to them, even if it's directed to the sibling or parent. It's codable if the volume, speaking style, and proximity suggest that the infant could be learning from the words, especially if the baby's name is said, e.g. "Shaelise, don't take Munna's toy bear!"
Colors: Do NOT code colors.
Letters/Numbers: Only code if there's a depiction of the letter/number, like in a book or on a sign. E.g. "Look at this four!"
All letters should be coded in lower-case.
Spell out all numbers, e.g. "one", "two+hundred".
Only code the words "numbers" or "letters" themselves if they're physical objects (like alphabet magnets, or if "letters" refers to mail).
Do not include people words (e.g. grandma, brother, boy).
Exceptions: do include “baby” (but not when it's a proper name or used like a nickname) and occupations (e.g. “policeman”)
Possessives: Put just the main word, e.g. kitty’s bowl would get one entry as “bowl”
Plurals: Code the word in the form it occurred in, e.g. kitties. (In the basic level, we'll simplify the syntax.)
Proper Nouns: Include book titles and characters always. See here for other cases. (See Formatting below.) Don't code pet names or people names.
Places: Code all places, but only record as present if appeared in book, TV show, toy, etc. (ex. beach, playground, school, etc.)
Nicknames: don't code (ex. Cinderella referring to the baby or mother, Lily+bug referring to the baby)
Include object words in songs. (If they're in the background or very quiet, don't include them; if it seems like they were put on for the child, do.)
Expressions: Usually not object words unless the expression can be taken literally (ex. "Cat got your tongue" is not coded for object words)
Spoken, English Words: We only code object words that are spoken in English; add comments documenting other languages being spoken.
Sign Language: Do not code words that occur in sign language alone.
If English words are spoken while a sign gesture is shown, code the word as usual and make the object presence "n" unless there is an image or an actual object present (i.e. the sign does not count as the object.)
Verb as object rule: If a word could be a verb OR an object word AND IS AMBIGUOUS, include it but make a comment (ex. Do you wanna drum? %com: verb as object)
Do NOT code if the sentence is NOT ambiguous. Ex: In the sentence "Let's brush your hair", 'brush' is clearly used as a verb and is NOT ambiguous; it should NOT be coded.
If a word is ONLY an object word (can't be used as another part of speech, ex. "car" can't be a verb) but is used in a strange syntax (ex. "Let's play car"), code it but make a comment (%com: atypical syntax).
Spelling
We use the New Oxford American Dictionary to decide how to spell words, whether a word is a compound word or not, etc (e.g. firetruck vs. fire truck). This is the built-in dictionary on Macs, and the online version can be found here.
Diminutives (kid versions of words like 'ducky'): If a word is not in the dictionary, add “y” for singular and “ies” for plural.
Formatting
Compounds:
Put a + between words in compounds (e.g. sweet+potato)
Don’t include simple adjectives (little+red+train) but do include informative modifiers (lego+man).
Punctuation: Don't include ANY punctuation (besides + as described above). Just leave it out! Examples: Wheres+babys+belly+button, Mr+bear
Proper Nouns
Coded words cannot have more than one capital letter, and only the first letter may be capitalized.
Only book titles and character/toy names may be capitalized. Compound book titles and characters (ex. Little Blue Truck) should be coded with a capital on the first word only (ex. Little+blue+truck).
If a book character has a prefix in it, make sure to use a plus sign and not a period (e.g. Mr. Ted the bus driver would be Mr+ted).
Any nouns that are not characters or titles (ex. iPad, TV, Band Aid) should be in lower case (ex: ipad, tv, band+aid).
Exceptions:
Names of countries (which aren't coded by themselves, but can be determiners, e.g. U+s+flag)
Place names (use CWI to determine if they should be included), e.g. Niagara+falls
Holidays (as adjective, e.g. Christmas+tree or Easter+egg)
Still have questions? Consult the Common Words Index!
Utterance Type
Put in a lowercase letter for utterance type based on the below coding:
d: declarative/statement
i: imperative (command)
q: question
r: reading, could be on a paper book, e-book, toy book, etc.
s: singing
n: non-utterance, i.e. a word in isolation like "ball!" or "kitty?" or a simple noun phrase of no more than 3 words which contains only 1 object word
u: uncertain (use sparingly)
Non-sentence utterances
words said in isolation, and noun phrases, e.g. 'ooh, ball!', 'nice kitty.', 'applesauce!', are n (non-utterance)
If it's more complex but not a full sentence (i.e. noun phrase longer than 3 words), it is probably a declarative, e.g. "prunes on your pants!."
If there are two object words in a phrase (ex. Bat and ball!) record as d (declarative).
A case that often comes up is the following utterance: "Munna, say 'Where's the doggy?'" This is coded as an imperative.
Utterances beginning with "Let's" (e.g. "Let's go to the park") should be coded as declarative. Utterances beginning with "Let me" (e.g. "Let me see your hand") should be coded as imperative.
Use the speaker's prosody and tone to determine utterance type (particularly in books like 100 First Words). If it sounds like reading, code "r", but it doesn't have to be "r" just because they're looking at a book. If it sounds like they're just listing the words, code as non-utterance.
Nursery rhymes and chanting count as singing if the speaker is using a sing-song tone that is distinct from their normal talking voice. Things like Patty Cake and This Little Piggy count as singing on a case-by-case basis, i.e. in cases where the speaker's tone and use of rhythm is different from usual child-directed speech FOR THAT PARENT/SPEAKER.
Book titles are not coded as reading. Code the utterance type according to the rest of the utterance. If they say just the book title (even if they're reading the title page), code as "n". Examples:
"Dr. Seuss's ABCs" = n
"Do you want to read Llama Llama Red Pajama?" = q
"Oh, I love Dr. Seuss's ABC's!" = d
Declarative sentences with tag questions (e.g. "This is your ball, right?") are coded as declarative if they otherwise sound like a declarative sentence. If the whole utterance sounds like a question, then code as a question.
Order
reading > singing (if both reading and singing, record "r")
reading, singing > non-utterance, question, imperative, declarative (ex. if an utterance is reading and non-utterance, record as "r")
non-utterance > question, imperative, declarative
question > declarative, imperative (ex. if an utterance is a question AND a command/declarative (“get your blocks?”/ “You like cookies?) use “q” (not d/i))
Object Presence
yes or no (use “y” or “n”): is the object word that was just said being touched or held or pointed at by the speaker or baby, or are they clearly being visually focused on? Then use “y”, otherwise “n”.
If the baby is touching an object, it is coded "y" for presence even if the baby isn't looking at it.
Body parts are present only if they're being touched/attended to, but they don't have to be looking. E.g. if mom says "What's on your leg?" and brushes it off, that's "y" even if the baby isn't looking.
Objects that are not present should be coded as "n", even if:
you can hear an object but not see it (such as a dog in another room or a lawn mower outside)- it is coded as NOT present.
the baby is naming an object that's not present ("want milk!")- it is coded as NOT present.
u: if you are uncertain about the object presence you can use the "u" code. This means that you think that there is a 50% chance the object may be seen or not seen by the baby. This will almost never be used for video, and should be used with care in audio files. Please ask other people in the lab what they think if you find yourself using this often.
Touched/retrieved after labeling: if the speaker takes out or points to or touches the object immediately after saying it (within 2 seconds) this counts as “y”, but if the speaker leaves the room to go get it and comes back several seconds later, this counts as “n”.
Object presence depends on whether the object is acting as an appropriate symbol, and does not depend on whether the actual object itself is present.
The drum drum drum rule: If a child is using a container as a drum, record the object "drum" as object present. Another example is if a shower is referred to as a "waterfall," you would record the word "waterfall" as present.
Pretend play: When coding instances of pretend play, code objects as present in the child is "in on" the pretending (if they are participating). For example, if their mom is handing them an empty teacup saying, "Here is your tea," this counts as present. However, if their sibling is pretending but you do not think the child is, code as not present.
Speaker
Use a 3 letter code for who is speaking. See here for a list of all 3 letter codes.
Child Productions
See the Child Productions page for more information!
For child-produced utterances, code them as the intended word. The utterance will also go to the intended word at basic level. For example, if the child tries to say an object word (ball) and does not pronounce it correctly (ex. "ba"), you should write the following:
ball &=n_y_CHI
.Sometimes the kids even combine multiple words in our files! We call these multi-word utterances and make note of each one (even if it doesn't include an object word). If the child produces a MWU during an audio or video file:
Code any object words as you usually would. That is, if the child says, "my carrot," code "carrot &=n_y_CHI" in addition to the MWU.
AND make a comment to note the multi-word utterance.
Personal Information
Full names, identifiable places, and any sensitive information should be marked as Personal Information in the files. See here for audio formatting guidelines and here for videos.
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