metadata

dataset_info:
  features:
    - name: text
      dtype: string
  splits:
    - name: train
      num_bytes: 198328228
      num_examples: 76529
  download_size: 103113616
  dataset_size: 198328228
configs:
  - config_name: default
    data_files:
      - split: train
        path: data/train-*
license: mit
task_categories:
  - text-generation
language:
  - en
  - eu
  - es
  - pt
  - sv
  - he
  - af
  - it
  - fr
  - de
  - ca
tags:
  - language
  - acquisition
  - child
  - childes
  - linguistics
  - babyLM

multiCHILDES: Multilingual Child-Directed Speech Dataset

Dataset Description

This dataset contains child-directed speech from 19 languages, extracted from the CHILDES corpus. The text has been cleaned and is designed for text generation tasks, particularly in studying early language acquisition.

Dataset Details

Source: CHILDES corpus
Languages: 19 languages
Text Type: Child-directed speech
Task: Text Generation, Language Modeling
Data Processing: The dataset has been cleaned to remove inconsistencies and noise.

Intended Use

This dataset is suitable for:

Training and evaluating language models for early language acquisition
Studying cross-linguistic differences in child-directed speech
Supporting research in psycholinguistics and computational linguistics

Usage

To load the dataset using datasets from Hugging Face:

from datasets import load_dataset

dataset = load_dataset("IParraMartin/multiCHILDES")
print(dataset["train"][0])

Data Statistics

Total Samples: 76529
Average Utterance Length: 500

Data Collection and Preprocessing

Source: Extracted from CHILDES (MacWhinney, 1998)
Preprocessing Steps:
- Removed extraneous annotations
- Normalized text
- Filtered out noisy data

Limitations & Biases

The dataset is limited to child-directed speech, making it unsuitable for general-purpose NLP tasks.
The representation of languages depends on CHILDES availability and data quantity, which may introduce selection bias.
Possible transcription errors or inconsistencies from the original sources.

Citation

If you use this dataset, please cite:

@article{macwhinney1998childes,
  title={The CHILDES system},
  author={MacWhinney, Brian},
  journal={Handbook of child language acquisition},
  pages={457--494},
  year={1998},
  publisher={Brill}
}

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to the CHILDES project for providing high-quality child language data and to the Hugging Face community for enabling open dataset sharing.