Many Paths to Language (MPaL) 2026
This 3-day conference focuses on meaningful differences in the way children acquire language. It will explore (a) multiple sources of variation in early language development, including: children’s linguistic and cultural environments, their cognitive maturation, and the structural properties of the languages they are acquiring, alongside (b) the implications of this variation for the mechanisms that drive and support native language acquisition, given the overall robustness of learning in the face of this variability.
Invited speakers
Allison Fitch (Rochester Institute of Technology)
Full hands and busy scenes: what caregiver-child interactions in ASL can teach us about language acquisition
Over the last few decades, a number of compelling theories have been put forward that tie word learning to multimodal input. Specifically, language perceived in the auditory modality is supported by co-occurring visual cues and/or manual behavior that identify its referent. While this is one path to language learning, these theories are unable to account for the language development of deaf children acquiring a sign language because visual referents compete with visual language input, and manual behavior competes with manual language production. In this presentation I will share data from deaf children acquiring American Sign Language (ASL) that shows how children (and their caregivers) manage this competition in a variety of contexts (during toy play, book reading, in a museum, and in a preschool classroom). Findings suggest both modality-independent and modality-specific methods of managing competing demands on the receptive and expressive language systems. We will discuss the implications of these findings in a historically speech-focused field.
Amanda Seidl (University of Delaware)
Sense to learn: How different sensory cues impact early word segmentation and learning
Even though the percentage of infant-directed touch, speech, and gaze varies across cultures, language learning scientists most frequently heavily weight speech input when discussing the language learning problem facing the child. However, privileging speech input may misrepresent the language learning problem and decontextualize/distort infant experiences since it may downgrade the role of other signals which are also prevalent in the child’s input (e.g., touch), may downgrade the role of combinations of signals which made be useful to the infant (e.g., how caregivers couple touch with speech), and may not take into account how infants weight sensory cues in their input (e.g., olfactory cues may help word-to-world mapping more than tactile ones). Here, I present several studies which show that infants make use of non-speech signals (e.g., touch) to segment the stream, that caregivers naturally combine touch and speech signals in ways that support word segmentation and learning, and that infants learn words earlier and better when multiple sensory channels are exploited.
Symposium Acquisition Sketch Projects
The Acquisition Sketch Project is an initiative that aims at increasing knowledge about the acquisition of understudied languages The symposium will highlight a handful of sketches—some complete and others still in progress. Therefore, we encourage those working on acquisition sketches to apply for this special session. Please submit for this special session via the normal submission page; you will be able to indicate that you’d like your abstract to be considered for the acquisition sketch special session.
Pre-conference workshop
Developmental Language Disorder: On Tuesday October 27th, 2026 there will be a pre-conference workshop, featuring studies on early predictors of Developmental Language Disorder, organized by the Radboud TOS fonds (see website).
Abstract submission
Abstract submission is closed.
Authors will be notified of presentation decisions from Friday July 17, 2026.
Venue
The conference (28-30th October) and the pre-conference workshop (27th October) will take place at the Max Planck Institute in Nijmegen, the Netherlands and online.
On October 28 a welcome dinner will be provided. To participate in the dinner, we ask a contribution of Euro 35 per person. This will include meal and two drinks. Please register for the welcome dinner via the registration form.
Prizes / Travel awards
Information to follow soon.
Registration
Registration for the conference will open on Friday July 17, 2026 and close at midnight (anywhere in the world) on Friday October 9th.
Both in-person and online participation is possible but in-person places are limited, so please register early. There will be a small registration fee of Eur 50 this time for in-person participation to help cover costs.
If you require access accommodations (e.g. breastfeeding room, materials in large font, a quiet space etc.) please register by Friday September 11, 2026 to give us time to help you with your preparations. Note that you are welcome to bring children, and we will provide a suitable room for children in our babylab, but we cannot provide staff to supervise the children.
Hotels in Nijmegen fill up quickly during local conferences. Please make sure to reserve your bookings early. A list with hotels can be found here. Other cities with good train connections to Nijmegen are Arnhem or Elst (approx. 20 minutes).
Abdel Elouatiq, Caroline Rowland, Eleni Zimianiti, Ilse van den Dobbelsteen, Imme Lammertink, Joyce van Zwet, Marisa Casillas, Paula Rubio Fernandez, Shoba Meera, Tineke Snijders, Yayun Zhang
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