# CHILDES

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{{Short description|Speech corpus established in 1984}}
The '''Child Language Data Exchange System''' ('''CHILDES''') is a [corpus](/source/speech_corpus) established in 1984 by [Brian MacWhinney](/source/Brian_MacWhinney) and [Catherine Snow](/source/Catherine_E._Snow) to serve as a central repository for data of first [language acquisition](/source/language_acquisition).<ref name=":0" /><ref name="db">{{cite journal |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13428-018-1176-7 |title=childes-db: A Flexible and reproducible interface to the child language data exchange system |last1=Sanchez |first1=Alesssandro |last2=Meylan |first2=Stephan C |last3=Braginsky |first3=Mika |last4=MacDonald |first4=Kyle E |last5=Yurovsky |first5=Daniel |last6=Frank |first6=Michael C |journal=Behavior Research Methods |volume=51 |date=2019 |issue=4 |pages=1928–1941 |doi=10.3758/s13428-018-1176-7 |pmid=30623390 |s2cid=256203840 |access-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200220093220/https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13428-018-1176-7 |archive-date=February 20, 2020|hdl=1721.1/131922 |hdl-access=free |url-access=subscription }}</ref> CHILDES is currently directed and maintained by [Brian MacWhinney](/source/Brian_MacWhinney) at [Carnegie Mellon University](/source/Carnegie_Mellon_University). 

The earliest transcripts in CHILDES date from the 1960s. As of 2024, the repository included content (transcripts, audio, and video) in 48 languages from 436 different [corpora](/source/Text_corpus), all of which are publicly available worldwide.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kempe |first=Vera |last2=Brooks |first2=Patricia J. |last3=Gillis |first3=Steven |date=2024 |title=Four Decades of Open Language Science: The CHILDES Project |url=https://eurokd.com/doi/10.32038/ltrq.2024.44.04 |journal=Language Teaching Research Quarterly |language=en |volume=44 |pages=15–30 |doi=10.32038/ltrq.2024.44.04 |issn=2667-6753|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Recently, CHILDES has been made into a component of the larger corpus [TalkBank](/source/TalkBank), which also includes language data from [aphasics](/source/aphasia), [second language acquisition](/source/second_language_acquisition), [conversation analysis](/source/conversation_analysis), and classroom language learning.  CHILDES is mainly used for analyzing the language of young children and speech of adults directed to them.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Biber |first=D. |title=Corpus linguistics: Investigating language structure and use |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1998 |isbn=9780521499576 |authorlink=}}</ref>

During the early 1990s, as computational resources capable of easily manipulating the data volumes found in CHILDES became commonly available, there was a significant increase in the number of studies of child language acquisition that made use of it.<ref name="db" />  

==Database format==
There are a variety of languages and ages represented in the CHILDES transcripts.  The majority of the transcripts are from spontaneous interactions and conversations.<ref name="brian">{{cite web |last=MacWhinney |first=Brian |title=CHILDES: Child Language Data Exchange System |url=https://www.lti.cs.cmu.edu/projects/spoken-interfaces-and-dialogue-processing/childes-child-language-data-exchange-system |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906035806/https://www.lti.cs.cmu.edu/projects/spoken-interfaces-and-dialogue-processing/childes-child-language-data-exchange-system |archive-date=September 6, 2015 |access-date=January 19, 2023 |website=Language Technologies Institute}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Introduction to the Database|url=http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/manuals/01intro.pdf|accessdate=2015-07-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150922055720/http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/manuals/01intro.pdf|archive-date=2015-09-22|url-status=dead}}</ref>  The transcriptions are coded in the CHAT (Codes for the Human Analysis of Transcripts) transcription format, which provides a standardized format for producing conversational transcripts.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |title=The Child Language Data Exchange System: an update |last1=MacWhinney |first1=Brian |last2=Snow |first2=Catherine |date=1990 |journal=J Child Lang |volume=17 |issue=2 |pages=457–72 |doi=10.1017/s0305000900013866 |pmid=2380278 |pmc=9807025 }}</ref> This system can be used to transcribe conversations with any type of language learner: children, second-language learners, and recovering aphasics.  In addition to discourse level transcription, the CHAT system also has options for [phonological](/source/phonological) and [morphological](/source/Morphology_(linguistics)) analysis.  The [CLAN program](/source/CLAN_program) was developed by Leonid Spektor and aids in transcription and analysis of the child language data.<ref>{{cite web |title=The CHILDES Project: Tools for Analyzing Talk |url=http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/manuals/chat.pdf |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150710000747/http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/manuals/chat.pdf |archivedate=2015-07-10 |accessdate=2015-07-08}}</ref>

==Use in research==
As of June 2025, [Google Scholar](/source/Google_Scholar) reported 11,221 citations of CHILDES in its database.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Google Scholar citations for "The CHILDES project: Tools for analyzing talk, Volume I: Transcription format and programs" |url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=6276361779610182944&as_sdt=2005&sciodt=0,5&hl=en |access-date=2025-06-30 |website=scholar.google.com}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://childes.talkbank.org/ CHILDES Homepage]
*[https://talkbank.org/ TalkBank Homepage]

{{Corpus linguistics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Childes}}
Category:Language acquisition
Category:Corpora
Category:Applied linguistics
Category:Linguistic research

{{lang-acquisition-stub}}
{{Corpora-stub}}

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [CHILDES](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHILDES) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHILDES?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.