Do parents provide a helping hand to vocabulary development in bilingual children?

Infants' pointing at nine months is associated with maternal sensitivity but not vocabulary

Infants often start pointing toward the end of their first year of life. Pointing shows a strong link to language, perhaps because parents label what infants point to. In the present study, we tested whether 9-month-olds' pointing was related to parental sensitivity and concurrent and subsequent vocabulary scores. Observations were made of 88 9-month-old infants in free-play situations with their mothers. Less than half the infants produced at least one index-finger point. The mothers' reactions to their infants' behaviour were coded for sensitivity. The mothers of the infants who pointed were less directing and responded more contingently than the mothers of the infants who did not point. However, there was no difference in vocabulary scores of pointers and non-pointers, either concurrently or at 12 and 18 months of age. These results could mean that parents' reactions play an important role in shaping pointing to be communicative.

Child-level factors associated with Spanish-English bilingual toddlers' productive vocabulary growth

This longitudinal study-conducted in the Midwestern United States-examines the child-level factors that promote Spanish-English bilingual toddlers' (n = 47; Mage = 18.80 months; SDage = 0.57) productive vocabulary skills from 18 to 30 months of age. At 6-month intervals, caregivers reported on toddlers' Spanish and English words produced as well as their language exposure at home. Video recordings at child age 18 months yielded estimates of toddlers' speech output (word tokens per minute). In addition, at child age 18 months, caregivers reported on toddlers' linguistic skills (comprehension), demographic background (gender, household income), and nonverbal behaviors (gesture production). Results showed that toddlers were exposed to both English and Spanish and received more Spanish than English from primary caregivers; there were no significant primary caregiver input differences across time. Growth modeling revealed linear growth rates for Spanish and conceptual (Spanish, English combined) vocabulary and a curvilinear trajectory for English vocabulary. Furthermore, toddlers' Spanish and conceptual vocabularies were positively associated with their higher frequencies of token use, greater production of gesture, and greater comprehension skills, even after controlling for input. Moreover, Spanish and conceptual growth rates were positively associated with higher token use. In terms of English, toddlers' vocabulary at child age 18 months was positively associated with their comprehension skills. Toddlers' use of more gestures and tokens as well as gender (boys) influenced their English acceleration rates over time. Findings indicate that unique trajectories exist for each of a bilingual's languages and these trajectories are differentially influenced by child-level factors, including their speech output, not only exposure to language. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Gesture development in infancy: Effects of gender but not bilingualism

Gesture is an important communication tool that provides insight into infants' early language and cognitive development and predicts later language skills. While bilingual school-age children have been reported to gesture more than monolinguals, there is a lack of research examining gesture use in infants exposed to more than one language. In this preregistered study, we compared three groups of 14-month-old infants (N = 150) learning French and/or English: bilinguals (hearing a second language at least 25% of the time), exposed (hearing a second language 10%-24% of the time), and monolinguals (hearing one language 90% of the time or more). Parent-reported use of communicative gestures was gathered from the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI). Results showed that the three language groups had similarly sized gesture repertoires, suggesting that language exposure did not affect gesture development at this age. However, a gender effect was found, where girls produced more types of gestures than boys. Overall, these results suggest that gender, but not language exposure, contributes to differences in gesture development in infancy.

Identifying Patterns of Similarities and Differences between Gesture Production and Comprehension in Autism and Typical Development

Production and comprehension of gesture emerge early and are key to subsequent language development in typical development. Compared to typically developing (TD) children, children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) exhibit difficulties and/or differences in gesture production. However, we do not yet know if gesture production either shows similar patterns to gesture comprehension across different ages and learners, or alternatively, lags behind gesture comprehension, thus mimicking a pattern akin to speech comprehension and production. In this study, we focus on the gestures produced and comprehended by a group of young TD children and children with ASD—comparable in language ability—with the goal to identify whether gesture production and comprehension follow similar patterns between ages and between learners. We elicited production of gesture in a semi-structured parent–child play and comprehension of gesture in a structured experimenter-child play across two studies. We tested whether young TD children (ages 2–4) follow a similar trajectory in their production and comprehension of gesture (Study 1) across ages, and if so, whether this alignment remains similar for verbal children with ASD (M_age = 5 years), comparable to TD children in language ability (Study 2). Our results provided evidence for similarities between gesture production and comprehension across ages and across learners, suggesting that comprehension and production of gesture form a largely integrated system of communication.

In Bilinguals' Hands: Identification of Bilingual, Preverbal Infants at Risk for Language Delay

Studies with monolingual infants show that the gestural behavior of 1-2-year-olds is a strong predictor for later language competencies and, more specifically, that the absence of index-finger pointing at 12 months seems to be a valid indicator for risk of language delay (LD). In this study a lack of index-finger pointing at 12 months was utilized as diagnostic criterion to identity infants with a high risk for LD at 24 months in a sample of 42 infants growing up bilingually. Results confirm earlier findings from monolinguals showing that 12-month-olds who point with the extended index finger have an advanced language status at 24 months and are less likely language delayed than infants who only point with the whole hand and do not produce index-finger points at 12 months.

Effect of sex and dyad composition on speech and gesture development of singleton and twin children

Children's early vocabulary shows sex differences - with boys having smaller vocabularies than age-comparable girls - a pattern that becomes evident in both singletons and twins. Twins also use fewer words than their singleton peers. However, we know relatively less about sex differences in early gesturing in singletons or twins, and also how singletons and twins might differ in their early gesture use. We examine the patterns of speech and gesture production of singleton and twin children, ages 0;10-to-3;4, during structured parent-child play. Boys and girls - singleton or twin - were similar in speech and gesture production, but singletons used a greater amount and diversity of speech and gestures than twins. There was no effect of twin dyad type (boy-boy, girl-girl, boy-girl) on either speech or gesture production. These results confirm earlier research showing close integration between gesture and speech in singletons in early language development, and further extend these patterns to twin children.