Linking Quality and Quantity of Parental Linguistic Input to Child Language Skills: A Meta-Analysis

Background TV and infant-family interactions: Insights from home observations

Background television has been found to negatively impact children's language development and self-regulatory skills, possibly due to decreased parent-child interactions. Most of the research on the relationship between background TV and caregiver-child interactions has been conducted in laboratory settings. In the current study, we conducted home observations and investigated whether infants engage in fewer interactions with family members in homes where background TV is more prevalent. We observed 32 infants at the ages of 8, 10, and 18 months in their home environments, coding for dyadic interactions (e.g., parent talking to and/or engaging with the child), triadic interactions (e.g., parent and infant play with a toy together), and infants' individual activities. Our findings revealed that background TV was negatively associated with the time infants spent in triadic interactions, positively associated with time spent engaging in individual activities, and not significantly related to the time spent in dyadic interactions. Apart from the relationship between background TV and individual activity time at 8 months, these associations remained significant even after accounting for families' socioeconomic status. These findings imply a correlation between background TV exposure and caregiver-infant-object interactions, warranting a longitudinal analysis with larger sample sizes.

"Speech Is Golden": The Importance of Colloquial Arabic for Reading Standard Arabic for Beginning Readers

PURPOSE

We investigated the role of spoken language in the acquisition of literacy in the context of Arabic diglossia, where the written language, Standard Arabic, deviates substantially from the spoken language, Colloquial Arabic, children acquire naturally from birth.

METHOD

The participants (N = 110; 40 girls) were Saudi Arabic-speaking children in Grades 2-4. Children completed assessments of oral paragraph reading and word decoding using a vowelized script. They also completed three spoken assessments of Colloquial Arabic, which include sentence comprehension, sentence completion, and pragmatic knowledge, as well as a test of phonological awareness. We used path analysis to investigate the contributions of each of the spoken language indicators, decoding, and phonological awareness to reading comprehension (RC) in single and multiple serial mediator models.

RESULTS

We found that spoken language (i.e., sentence comprehension, sentence completion, and pragmatic knowledge) and word decoding uniquely contributed to RC. Moreover, word decoding mediated the association between spoken language and RC. The path from spoken language to phonological awareness, then to word decoding, and finally to RC was inconclusive.

CONCLUSIONS

While most studies on literacy acquisition in the context of Arabic diglossia focus on the linguistic distance between the colloquial (spoken) and the standard (written) language varieties, our results highlight the important contribution of spoken language skills to reading skills in Arabic despite this linguistic gap. The important implication of these findings is that spoken language interventions aimed at boosting children's narrative language skills in their home language (Colloquial Arabic) are an important tool for building a foundation for literacy in diglossia contexts.

Parents' mental state language and child gender: A scoping review of developmental evidence

Mental state language (MSL) is an important mechanism through which children learn about their social world and place within it. Previous research has suggested that parents may use MSL differently towards children based on their child's gender. However, findings are inconsistent. This scoping review explores the consistency of reported differences in parents' MSL use as a function of children's gender while exploring the methodological variables that may provide insights into these differences. Based on a review of the 27 studies included, 12 found a significant relationship between child gender and parents' MSL, while the remaining did not. The included studies used a range of methodological approaches to elicit MSL. This scoping review allows researchers and practitioners to reflect upon assumptions regarding the associations between child gender and parents' MSL. Further, we call for the use of diverse and informed approaches when studying these associations from a developmental perspective in the future.

An observational study of parental language during play and mealtime in toddlers at variable likelihood for autism

Parental language input influences child language outcomes but may vary based on certain characteristics. This research examined how parental language differs during two contexts for toddlers at varying likelihood of autism based on their developmental skills. Parental language (quantity, quality, and pragmatic functions) was analyzed during dyadic play and mealtime interactions as a secondary data analysis of observational data from a study of toddlers at elevated and lower likelihood of autism. Child developmental skills and sensory processing were also assessed. Parents used more words per minute, directives, and verbs during play and more adjectives, descriptions, and questions during mealtime. Parental language differed based on child fine motor skills, receptive language, and levels of sensory hyporesponsiveness but not autism likelihood. Overall, this study found that parental language varies based on context and child developmental skills. Future research examining parental language should include pragmatic functions and context across developmental trajectories.

VocabStudy: A remote collection of naturalistic topic-structured parental speech and toddlers' vocabularies using a mobile phone application

The current work presents VocabStudy, a collection of natural language samples and children's vocabularies collected remotely by parents via a mobile phone application. The corpus contains 567,003 word tokens and represents 144 hours of speech over a period of six months from the language environment of 63 British toddlers aged 13 to 28 months. The corpus incorporates labeled speech samples of five typical routines: mealtime, bedtime, playtime, bathtime, and nappytime (i.e., diaper). To explore consistency and variability across these five linguistic contexts, topic modeling was employed. The topic most successfully detected as having a unique structure was mealtime, which was identified as such nearly 100% of the time; bathtime, nappytime, and bedtime were found to cluster together most of the time, suggesting that they have a similar language structure; playtime was correctly identified as such about 14% of the time. To validate the accuracy of parents marking the words that their child produced, the child's utterances found in the audio recordings were examined. About 18% of the vocabulary reported by parents appeared in the transcripts, and the reported vocabulary sizes were highly correlated with the number of unique words uttered by the children (ρ = .72, p < 001). The results suggest that most parents marked the words soon after their children start producing them (p < .001, d = 0.9). I discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using a mobile phone application as a method to collect children's data remotely, what worked to keep participants entering data, and what could have been done to avoid some issues encountered.

Modeling early phonetic acquisition from child-centered audio data

Infants learn their native language(s) at an amazing speed. Before they even talk, their perception adapts to the language(s) they hear. However, the mechanisms responsible for this perceptual attunement and the circumstances in which it takes place remain unclear. This paper presents the first attempt to study perceptual attunement using ecological child-centered audio data. We show that a simple prediction algorithm exhibits perceptual attunement when applied on unrealistic clean audio-book data, but fails to do so when applied on ecologically-valid child-centered data. In the latter scenario, perceptual attunement only emerges when the prediction mechanism is supplemented with inductive biases that force the algorithm to focus exclusively on speech segments while learning speaker-, pitch-, and room-invariant representations. We argue these biases are plausible given previous research on infants and non-human animals. More generally, we show that what our model learns and how it develops through exposure to speech depends exquisitely on the details of the input signal. By doing so, we illustrate the importance of considering ecologically valid input data when modeling language acquisition.

The impact of a community-based music program during infancy on the quality of parent-child language interactions

The early language environment, especially high-quality, contingent parent-child language interactions, is crucial for a child's language development and later academic success. In this secondary analysis study, 89 parent-child dyads were randomly assigned to either the Music Together® (music) or play date (control) classes. Children were 9- to 15-month old at baseline, primarily white (86.7%) and female (52%). Measures of conversational turns (CTs) and parental verbal quality were coded from parent-child free play episodes at baseline, mid-intervention (month 6), and post-intervention (month 12). Results show that participants in the music group had a significantly greater increase in CT measures and quality of parent verbalization post-intervention. Music enrichment programs may be a strategy to enhance parent-child language interactions during early childhood.

Toddler negative affectivity and effortful control: Relations with parent-toddler conversation engagement and indirect effects on language

Evidence that early parent-child conversation supports early language development suggests a need to understand factors that account for individual differences in parent-child conversation engagement. Whereas most studies focus on demographic factors, we investigated the role of toddler temperament in a longitudinal study of 120 economically strained families. Specifically, we investigated the degree to which toddlers' negative affectivity and effortful control, considered together as a composite reflecting challenging temperament, accounted for variability in parent-toddler conversation engagement, and whether the frequency of that engagement mediated associations between toddler temperament and toddler expressive language skills. Toddler challenging temperament (i.e., high negative affectivity and low effortful control) and parent-toddler conversation engagement were measured at 18 and 30 months. Toddler expressive language skills were measured at 18, 24, and 36 months. As expected, a path model indicated inverse relations between toddler challenging temperament and concurrent parent-toddler conversation engagement at both 18 and 30 months. Unexpectedly, there were no direct associations between toddler challenging temperament and toddler expressive language skills either concurrently or longitudinally. However, we found indirect effects of toddler challenging temperament on later toddler expressive language skills via parent-toddler conversation engagement. Findings highlight the importance of considering toddler temperamental characteristics in addition to family demographics as important factors that account for variability in parent-toddler conversation engagement.

A longitudinal study of the relationship between children's exposure to screen media and vocabulary development

AIM

This study addresses the scarcity of longitudinal research on the influence of screen media on children. It aims to explore the longitudinal relationship between children's vocabulary development and their exposure to screen media.

METHODS

The study, initiated in 2017, included 72 children (37 boys) in Östergötland, Sweden, at three key developmental stages: preverbal (9.7 months), early verbal (25.5 months) and preliterate (5.4 years). Parents completed online surveys at each time point, reporting their child's screen time. At 10 months and 2 years, age-appropriate vocabulary assessments were conducted online. At age 5, children's vocabulary was laboratory assessed.

RESULTS

Correlational analysis revealed a negative relationship between language scores and screen media use across all time points. Furthermore, a cross-lagged panel model demonstrated that screen media use showed significant continuity over time, with screen use at age 2 predicting language development at ages 2 and 5.

CONCLUSION

This longitudinal study, spanned from 9 months to 5 years of age, established a predictive negative association between children's exposure to screen media and their vocabulary development. These findings underscore the need to consider the impact of screen media on early childhood development and may inform guidelines for screen media use in young children.

Analyzing the effect of sibling number on input and output in the first 18 months

Prior research suggests that across a wide range of cognitive, educational, and health-based measures, first-born children outperform their later-born peers. Expanding on this literature using naturalistic home-recorded data and parental vocabulary reports, we find that early language outcomes vary by number of siblings in a sample of 43 English-learning U.S. children from mid-to-high socioeconomic status homes. More specifically, we find that children in our sample with two or more-but not one-older siblings had smaller productive vocabularies at 18 months, and heard less input from caregivers across several measures than their peers with less than two siblings. We discuss implications regarding what infants experience and learn across a range of family sizes in infancy.

Novel word learning ability in 24-month-olds: The interactive role of mother's work status and education level

Using both online and offline measures, this study investigates how maternal education and work status (stay-at-home, part-time, full-time) are jointly associated with infants' word learning ability and vocabulary size. One hundred 24-month-old infants completed a lab-based mutual exclusivity task, which assesses infants' novel word learning ability. Caregivers reported infants' productive vocabulary size using the MCDIs. There was no evidence for an association between infants' productive vocabulary size and maternal education, maternal work status, or their interaction. However, infants' novel word learning ability was significantly related to both maternal factors and their interaction. The positive association between maternal education and word learning performance was attenuated for infants of part-time and full-time working mothers compared to infants with at home mothers. These findings suggest that using real-time measures with high task demand may better capture developmental differences in infants and expand our understanding of maternal factors contributing to early language development.

Linking Language Skills and Social Competence in Children With Developmental Language Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

PURPOSE

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to examine the association between language skills and social competence in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and to assess the potential moderators of these associations.

METHOD

The study was reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Studies were identified according to a search strategy carried out in PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Scopus, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global databases. A total of 15,069 articles were independently double screened in the title and abstract phases, with 250 articles proceeding to a full-text review. Inclusion criteria comprised (a) a sample of children with DLD between the ages of 2 and 12 years, (b) a language measure, (c) a social competence measure, and (d) an appropriate statistic. Exclusion criteria were (a) intervention studies with no baseline data, (b) language measures based on preverbal abilities, (c) samples of children with DLD and other clinical conditions, and (d) studies without useable statistics. Data were extracted from 21 studies that met the eligibility criteria for the meta-analysis.

RESULTS

Pooled estimates across 21 studies (Mage = 7.52 years; 64% male) and 6,830 children indicated a significant association between language skills and social competence in children with DLD (r = .18, 95% confidence interval [.12, .24], p < .001), which was small in magnitude. The effect sizes were stronger in studies that assessed overall language skills than in those that specifically measured receptive or expressive language skills.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings from this study support a subtle and reliable relationship between language and social competence in children with DLD. The implications and limitations of this study and its future directions are also discussed.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24514564.

Relating the prosody of infant-directed speech to children's vocabulary size

This study examines correlations between the prosody of infant-directed speech (IDS) and children's vocabulary size. We collected longitudinal speech data and vocabulary information from Dutch mother-child dyads with children aged 18 (N = 49) and 24 (N = 27) months old. We took speech context into consideration and distinguished between prosody when mothers introduce familiar vs. unfamiliar words to their children. The results show that IDS mean pitch predicts children's vocabulary growth between 18 and 24 months. In addition, the degree of prosodic modification when mothers introduce unfamiliar words to their children correlates with children's vocabulary growth during this period. These findings suggest that the prosody of IDS, especially in word-learning contexts, may serve linguistic purposes.

Mothers used wider vocabulary and talked to their six-month-old infants more during shared book reading than when they played with toys

AIM

We compared mothers reading books to six-month-old infants or playing with toys and measured whether the maternal language input influenced the children's spoken vocabulary at 18 months of age.

METHOD

This Taiwanese study recruited 46 dyads and video recorded them while the mothers read books to their infants and played with them with toys at 6 months of age. The mothers' lexical diversity, which is the ratio of different unique words to the total number of words, was measured. We then assessed the children's spoken vocabulary at 18 months.

RESULTS

The mother used more diverse vocabulary and a higher number of words when they were reading books than playing with toys with their children (p = 0.001). Maternal lexical diversity at 6 months of age accounted for 14.4% of the unique variance in the number of different words used by the child at 18 months. We believe that this is a novel finding.

CONCLUSION

Mothers used wider vocabulary and talked to their infants more during book reading than when they played with toys. Diverse maternal vocabulary at 6 months of age positively influenced the number of different words their children used at 18 months of age.

Conversation disruptions in early childhood predict executive functioning development: A longitudinal study

Conversational turn-taking is a complex communicative skill that requires both linguistic and executive functioning (EF) skills, including processing input while simultaneously forming and inhibiting responses until one's turn. Adult-child turn-taking predicts children's linguistic, cognitive, and socioemotional development. However, little is understood about how disruptions to temporal contingency in turn-taking, such as interruptions and overlapping speech, relate to cognitive outcomes, and how these relationships may vary across developmental contexts. In a longitudinal sample of 275 socioeconomically diverse mother-child dyads (children 50% male, 65% White), we conducted pre-registered examinations of whether the frequency of dyads' conversational disruption during free play when children were 3 years old related to children's executive functioning (EF; 9 months later), self-regulation skills (18 months later), and externalizing psychopathology in early adolescence (age 10-12 years). Contrary to hypotheses, more conversational disruptions significantly predicted higher inhibition skills, controlling for sex, age, income-to-needs (ITN), and language ability. Results were driven by maternal disruptions of the child's speech, and could not be explained by measures of overall talkativeness or interactiveness. Exploratory analyses revealed that ITN moderated these relationships, such that the positive effect of disruptions on inhibition was strongest for children from lower ITN backgrounds. We discuss how adult-driven "cooperative overlap" may serve as a form of engaged participation that supports cognition and behavior in certain cultural contexts.

Literacy and early language development: Insights from computational modelling

Computational models of reading have tended to focus on the cognitive requirements of mapping among written, spoken, and meaning representations of individual words in adult readers. Consequently, the alignment of these computational models with behavioural studies of reading development has to date been limited. Models of reading have provided us with insights into the architecture of the reading system, and these have recently been extended to investigate literacy development, and the early language skills that influence children's reading. These models show us: how learning to read builds on early language skills, why various reading interventions might be more or less effective for different children, and how reading develops across different languages and writing systems. Though there is growing alignment between descriptive models of reading behaviour and computational models, there remains a gap, and I lay out the groundwork for how translation may become increasingly effective through future modelling work.

No concurrent correlations between parental mental state talk and toddlers' language abilities

Mental State Talk (MST) is utterances describing invisible mental aspects. The first aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of Parental MST and Child MST and their concurrent association in a Swedish population, and the second aim was to relate these MST measures to the children's general language abilities. Seventy-seven dyads of parents and their 25-month-old toddlers participated. MST was assessed by videotaping the dyads during free-play sessions in a laboratory and general language abilities were based on parental reports. Forty-nine toddlers did not produce MST, while all parents used MST. Child MST was positively associated with vocabulary and grammar. Parental MST was not associated with Child MST nor the children's general language abilities. In exploratory analyses, Parental MST referred to another than the child was positively correlated with vocabulary and grammar. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings and continue studying MST in different linguistic contexts.

Consensus Paper: Situated and Embodied Language Acquisition

Theories of embodied cognition postulate that perceptual, sensorimotor, and affective properties of concepts support language learning and processing. In this paper, we argue that language acquisition, as well as processing, is situated in addition to being embodied. In particular, first, it is the situated nature of initial language development that affords for the developing system to become embodied. Second, the situated nature of language use changes across development and adulthood. We provide evidence from empirical studies for embodied effects of perception, action, and valence as they apply to both embodied cognition and situated cognition across developmental stages. Although the evidence is limited, we urge researchers to consider differentiating embodied cognition within situated context, in order to better understand how these separate mechanisms interact for learning to occur. This delineation also provides further clarity to the study of classroom-based applications and the role of embodied and situated cognition in the study of developmental disorders. We argue that theories of language acquisition need to address for the complex situated context of real-world learning by completing a "circular notion": observing experimental paradigms in real-world settings and taking these observations to later refine lab-based experiments.

Parental cognitive stimulation in preterm-born children's neurocognitive functioning during the preschool years: a systematic review

In the United States, survival rates for preterm neonates (<37 weeks of gestation) have tripled in recent years. In parallel, preterm-born children show poorer performance in neurocognitive functioning compared to their full-term peers (≥39 weeks of gestation), and biological models predicting preterm-born children's neurocognitive performance have been met with limited success, highlighting a need to focus on environmental factors. Thus, this systematic review examines the literature on parental cognitive stimulation in relation to preterm-born children's neurocognitive outcomes. Studies were considered for inclusion if they included a sample of preterm-born children, included a measure of parental cognitive stimulation, and included a measure of child neurocognitive performance. The databases searched were PubMed, PsychINFO, CINAHL, ProQuest, and Scopus. Eight studies were included (44 unique associations). Findings suggest that preterm-born children's language skills might be open to a wide range of qualitative and quantitative features of parental cognitive stimulation. Our findings suggest that parental cognitive stimulation matters for preterm-born children's neurocognitive performance. Future experiential models should examine the mechanistic roles of cognitive stimulation in relation to narrowed neurocognitive outcomes to better inform possible prevention and intervention efforts. IMPACT: This systematic review examines the literature on parental cognitive stimulation in relation to preterm-born children's neurocognitive outcomes. Our review demonstrates that preterm-born children's language skills might be open to a wide range of qualitative and quantitative features of parental cognitive stimulation. The emphasis on environmental factors might ultimately better inform possible prevention and intervention efforts for children at risk as they transition to formal schooling.

Early childhood education language environments: considerations for research and practice

The importance of developing early language and literacy skills is acknowledged by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a global human rights issue. Indeed, research suggests that language abilities are foundational for a host of cognitive, behavioral, and social-emotional outcomes. Therefore, it is critical to provide experiences that foster language acquisition across early learning settings. Central to these efforts is incorporating assessments of language environments into research and practice to drive quality improvement. Yet, several barriers may be preventing language environment assessments from becoming widely integrated into early education. In this brief, we review evidence on the types of experiences that promote language development, describe characteristics of language environment assessments, and outline practical and philosophical considerations to assist with decision-making. Further, we offer recommendations for future research that may contribute knowledge regarding strategies to assess and support language development. In addressing both areas, we highlight the potential for early childhood language environments to advance equity.

Parental use of causal language for preterm and full-term children: A longitudinal study

Parents are often a good source of information, introducing children to how the world around them is described and explained in terms of cause-and-effect relations. Parents also vary in their speech, and these variations can predict children's later language skills. Being born preterm might be related to such parent-child interactions. The present longitudinal study investigated parental causal language use in Turkish, a language with particular causative morphology, across three time points when preterm and full-term children were 14-, 20-, and 26-months-old. In general, although preterm children heard fewer words overall, there were no differences between preterm and full-term groups in terms of the proportion of causal language input. Parental causal language input increased from 20 to 26 months, while the amount of overall verbal input remained the same. These findings suggest that neonatal status can influence the amount of overall parental talk, but not parental use of causal language.

Overlooked advantages of interactive book reading in early childhood? A systematic review and research agenda

Previous reviews of the nature and consequences of adult-child book reading have focused on seeking impacts of interactive reading on the acquisition of vocabulary and emergent literacy skills. In this systematic review we examined to what extent there has been systematic study of the effects of interactive reading on four less frequently studied developmental outcomes important to children's academic and life prospects: socio-emotional and socio-cognitive (SEL) skills, narrative skills, grammar, and world knowledge. We identified 67 studies of interactive reading that met the inclusion criteria and that examined the targeted outcomes, using either experimental, quasi-experimental, correlational, or single-group intervention methods. We found that studies of effects on grammar and world knowledge outcomes were very sparsely represented; though narrative was often studied as an outcome, the wide variation in conceptualizing and assessing the construct hampered any clear conclusion about book-reading effects. The most robust research strand focused on SEL skill outcomes, though here too the outcome assessments varied widely. We speculate that better instrumented approaches to assessing vocabulary and emergent literacy have led to the persistent emphasis on these domains, despite robust evidence of only modest associations, and argue that work to develop sound shared measures of narrative and SEL skills would enable cross-study comparison and the accumulation of findings. In addition, we note that the various studies implicated different explanatory principles for the value of reading with children: specific interactional features (open-ended questions, following the child's lead, expanding child utterances) or content features (emotion-enhanced books, talk about mental states, science topics), raising another topic for more focused study in the future.

Children's Early Spontaneous Comparisons Predict Later Analogical Reasoning Skills: An Investigation of Parental Influence

Laboratory studies have demonstrated beneficial effects of making comparisons on children's analogical reasoning skills. We extend this finding to an observational dataset comprising 42 children. The prevalence of specific comparisons, which identify a feature of similarity or difference, in children's spontaneous speech from 14-58 months is associated with higher scores in tests of verbal and non-verbal analogy in 6th grade. We test two pre-registered hypotheses about how parents influence children's production of specific comparisons: 1) via modelling, where parents produce specific comparisons during the sessions prior to child onset of this behaviour; 2) via responsiveness, where parents respond to their children's earliest specific comparisons in variably engaged ways. We do not find that parent modelling or responsiveness predicts children's production of specific comparisons. However, one of our pre-registered control analyses suggests that parents' global comparisons-comparisons that do not identify a specific feature of similarity or difference-may bootstrap children's later production of specific comparisons, controlling for parent IQ. We present exploratory analyses following up on this finding and suggest avenues for future confirmatory research. The results illuminate a potential route by which parents' behaviour may influence children's early spontaneous comparisons and potentially their later analogical reasoning skills.

The Language Environment at Home of Children With (a Suspicion of) a Developmental Language Disorder and Relations With Standardized Language Measures

PURPOSE

This study compares the home language environments of children with (a suspicion of) developmental language disorder (DLD) with that of children with typical development (TD). It does so by adopting new technology that automatically provides metrics about children's language environment (Language ENvironment Analysis [LENA]). In addition, relationships between LENA metrics and standardized language tests are explored in the DLD group.

METHOD

Ninety-nine 2- to 4-year-old toddlers participated: 59 with (a suspicion of) DLD and 40 with TD. LENA metrics on adult word count, conversational turn count, and child vocalization count were obtained. For all children, data on parental education and multilingualism were available. In the DLD group, data were collected on receptive and expressive vocabulary and grammar, and on nonverbal intelligence, using standardized tests.

RESULTS

We found lower adult word count, conversational turn count, and child vocalization count in the DLD group, independent of multilingualism but not of parental education. In the DLD group, receptive vocabulary was related to conversational turn count and child vocalization count, but not to adult word count. Expressive vocabulary, receptive grammar, and expressive grammar were not related to LENA metrics.

CONCLUSIONS

Toddlers with (a suspicion of) DLD vocalize less at home than children with TD. They also hear fewer adult words and experience fewer conversational turns. Children with DLD's language outcomes are to a limited extent related to language environment at home. Conversational turns and child vocalizations are in this respect more important than adult words, in line with findings for TD populations.

Parent American Sign Language skills correlate with child-but not toddler-ASL vocabulary size

Most deaf children have hearing parents who do not know a sign language at birth, and are at risk of limited language input during early childhood. Studying these children as they learn a sign language has revealed that timing of first-language exposure critically shapes language outcomes. But the input deaf children receive in their first language is not only delayed, it is much more variable than most first language learners, as many learn their first language from parents who are themselves new sign language learners. Much of the research on deaf children learning a sign language has considered the role of parent input using broad strokes, categorizing hearing parents as non-native, poor signers, and deaf parents as native, strong signers. In this study, we deconstruct these categories, and examine how variation in sign language skills among hearing parents might affect children's vocabulary acquisition. This study included 44 deaf children between 8- and 60-months-old who were learning ASL and had hearing parents who were also learning ASL. We observed an interactive effect of parent ASL proficiency and age, such that parent ASL proficiency was a significant predictor of child ASL vocabulary size, but not among the infants and toddlers. The proficiency of language models can affect acquisition above and beyond age of acquisition, particularly as children grow. At the same time, the most skilled parents in this sample were not as fluent as "native" deaf signers, and yet their children reliably had age-expected ASL vocabularies. Data and reproducible analyses are available at https://osf.io/9ya6h/.

Exploring the role of "in the moment" and global caregiver and child factors in caregiver questioning during shared book viewing

Questions of high (vs. low) cognitive demand (CD), which encourage children to engage in abstract or critical thinking (e.g., problem solve, reason about cause-and-effect relations, make inferences), may drive relations between children's language exposure and early skills. The present study adopted a micro-analytic approach to examine caregivers' high-CD questioning with their preschool-aged children while viewing a wordless picture book (n = 121) and "in the moment" (e.g., interaction time, child responses) and global factors (e.g., caregiver education). The probability of caregivers' high-CD questioning increased with interaction time and caregiver education. Post-hoc exploratory analyses revealed that the relation between children's responses and caregivers' high-CD questioning depended on caregivers' perceptions of children's vocabulary skills. Specifically, the probability of caregivers' subsequent high-CD questioning was greater if their child did not respond previously and if caregivers perceived them to have high vocabulary skills. In contrast, caregivers' questioning remained relatively constant for responsive children across different vocabulary skills. Thus, caregivers may employ certain types of input during brief, informal learning interactions with their children by considering their own and their child's propensities and micro-level changes that occur during their conversations.

Promoting Cognitive Stimulation in Parents Across Infancy and Toddlerhood: A Randomized Clinical Trial

OBJECTIVE

To test the impact of the fully integrated Smart Beginnings model on parental support of cognitive stimulation from 6 to 24 months across infancy and toddlerhood.

STUDY DESIGN

This was a single-blind, 2-site randomized clinical trial of the Smart Beginnings intervention. Enrollment took place at birth in postpartum units of hospitals in New York City and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a consecutive sample of 403 mother-infant dyads. Smart Beginnings combines a Video Interaction Project-14-session universal primary prevention program delivered in the pediatric clinic at the time of well-child visits birth-36 months-with potential for Family Check-Up-3-4 sessions targeted secondary prevention home-visiting program. The principal outcome was parental support of cognitive stimulation assessed via parent survey and video-recorded observations of parent-child interactions. Ordinary least squares and mixed effects regressions were conducted.

RESULTS

Families were mostly Black/African-American (50%) or Latinx (42%); all were Medicaid eligible (100%). Smart Beginnings significantly promoted cognitive stimulation during infancy and toddlerhood for most survey outcomes across time, including StimQ common total (effect size [ES] = 0.25, P = .01) and READ Quantity (ES = .19, P = .04) and Quality (ES = .30, P = .001). For the observations, the impact of Smart Beginnings varied by time, with significant impacts at 6 (ES = 0.37-.40, P < .001) and 24 (ES = 0.27-.30, P < .001) months, but not 18 months.

CONCLUSIONS

Smart Beginnings positively promotes cognitive stimulation from infancy through toddlerhood using the integrated model. This study adds to the body of research showing preventive interventions in pediatric primary care and home visiting can support early relational health including parental support of cognitive stimulation.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

NCT02459327.

The home language environment and early language ability in rural Southwestern China

Using premier Language Environment Analysis technology to measure and analyze the home language environment, this observational study aims to describe the home language environment and child language ability, drawing on empirical data from 77 households with children aged 18–24 months from rural China. The results show large variation in measures of the home language environment and early language ability, similar to other rural Chinese samples. Results also demonstrate significant correlations between child age and the home language environment, maternal employment and the home language environment, father’s educational attainment and the home language environment, adult–child conversations and early language ability, and child vocalizations and early language ability.

Spanish-English bilingual toddlers' vocabulary skills: The role of caregiver language input and warmth

There is a well-documented link between bilingual language development and the relative amounts of exposure to each language. Less is known about the role of quality indicators of caregiver-child interactions in bilingual homes, including caregiver input diversity, warmth and sensitivity. This longitudinal study examines the relation between caregiver input (lexical diversity, amount), warmth and sensitivity and bilingual toddlers' subsequent vocabulary outcomes. We video-recorded caregiver-child interactions in Spanish-English Latino homes when toddlers (n = 47) were 18 months of age (M = 18.32 months; SD = 1.02 months). At the 24-month follow-up, we measured children's vocabulary as total vocabulary (English, Spanish combined) as well as within language (Spanish, English). Results revealed that Spanish lexical diversity exposure at 18 months from caregivers was positively associated with children's Spanish and total vocabulary scores at 24 months, while English lexical diversity was positively associated with children's English scores; lexical diversity and amount were highly correlated. Additionally, caregivers' warmth was positively associated with children's Spanish, English and total vocabulary scores. Together, these factors accounted for substantial variance (30-40%) in vocabulary outcomes. Notably, caregiver input accounted for more variance in single language outcomes than did caregiver warmth, whereas caregiver warmth uniquely accounted for more variance in total vocabulary scores. Our findings extend prior research findings by suggesting that children's dual language development may depend on their exposure to a diverse set of words, not only amount of language exposure, as well as warm interactions with caregivers. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/q1V_7fz5wog HIGHLIGHTS: Video-recorded observations of caregiver-child interactions revealed warmth and high sensitivity from Latino caregivers. Linguistically-detailed analyses of caregiver input revealed wide variation in the diversity of Spanish and English directed at 18-month-old bilingual toddlers. Bilingual toddlers' vocabulary (single language, total) was positively associated with caregivers' diverse input and warmth, thus extending prior findings on bilinguals' amount of language exposure. Findings suggest that caregivers' lexical diversity explains more variance in bilingual toddlers' single language outcomes, whereas warmth explains more variance in total vocabulary scores.

Infant vocalizations elicit simplified speech in childcare

Infant babbling has an important social function in promoting early language development by attracting caregiver attention and prompting parents' contingent, simplified speech, which is more learnable for infants. Here, we demonstrate that prelinguistic infant vocalizations also create learning opportunities for infants in childcare settings by eliciting simplified and more learnable linguistic information during teacher-infant interactions. We compared the rates and complexity of contingent and non-contingent verbal interactions of 34 childcare teachers during a one-on-one free play interaction with a familiar infant under their care (M = 12.6 months old). As compared to non-contingent utterances, teachers' contingent utterances included fewer unique words, a higher proportion of single-word responses, and a shorter mean length of utterances. Teachers did not change their response length based on infants' syllable type and were equally likely to respond to vowels and consonant-vowel vocalizations. Sources of individual differences in the simplification effect related to infant behaviors and teacher characteristics are discussed. The results parallel previous findings demonstrating the simplification effect in parent-infant interactions. That teachers also show this simplification effect when responding to infant vocalizations suggests the power of infant prelinguistic vocalizations for organizing caregiver attention in various settings to elicit simplified, learnable language.

Socio-Economic Status and Language Development in Hearing Loss: A Critical Appraisal

The impact of language input on children's speech, language, and brain development was borne out of Hart and Risley's famous "30-million-word gap". A perspective bolstered by many studies in the last decade relates higher socio-economic status (SES) to better qualitative and quantitative differences in children's speech. The logic chains found in these studies suggest that literacy development depends on language and brain development. Thus, brain building develops based on environmental experience and language input depends on the brain's perception of the auditory information. This essay uses the latest published peer-reviewed research to outline the current landscape of the role of SES in the development of speech and language skills among children with hearing loss (HL) who are enrolled in auditory-driven habilitation programs. This essay argues that low SES families may provide sufficient input for their children. The outcome of auditory-driven programs implemented by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) seems to be detached from SES. The role of SES on this developmental trajectory remains unclear, and clinical practice may be related to other validated and robust parameters related to hearing loss.

Effects of multilingualism on Australian infants' language environments in early childhood education centers

This study investigates differences in the language environments experienced by multilingual and monolingual infants in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings. The Language Environment Analysis (LENA) technology was used to collect day-long audio-recordings from 181 one-year-old infants (age range from 12 to 21 months). We examined whether infants' multilingual status predicts the amount of educators' language input (adult word count, AWC), child vocalizations (CVC) and conversational turns (CTC), as well as interaction effects on AWC, CVC and CTC of infants' multilingual status and other infant, home and ECEC characteristics. Multilevel mixed effects models revealed no main effect of infants' multilingual status on the language environment outcome variables. Instead, infant gender significantly predicted adult word count, with female infants hearing more words from educators than male infants. There was a significant interaction effect between the infants' multilingual status and both their age and length of time in an ECEC setting on child vocalizations. While monolingual infants produced more vocalizations as their age increased, multilingual infants did not show this increase in vocalizations with age. Further, the difference between monolingual and multilingual children's vocalizations decreased as the length of time in ECEC increased. There were no significant predictors of conversational turns. Findings from this study suggest that early childhood educators do not adjust their talk according to the multilingual status of the infants. However, multilingual infants do not increase their vocalizations as their age increases to the same extent as do their monolingual peers. The interaction effect between multilingualism and the length of ECEC attendance also implies that ECEC environments may be particularly beneficial for supporting multilingual infants' vocalizations. This study highlights the need to provide pedagogical support to educators to help them to encourage multilingual infants' vocalizations in ECEC settings.

Surveying Parents of Preschool Children about Digital and Analogue Play and Parent-Child Interaction

The addition of digital toys to the child's toy box has resulted in the development of the new 'digital play', which differs from analogue play. Research shows that digital toys are available from infancy onwards and are significantly changing the way children engage in play and communicate with parents during play. How this influences the child's development must be established. The choice of toys and the manner in which they are used depend greatly on the parents. In the present study, parents' opinions and experiences of their child's digital and analogue play were explored in order to gain insight into the parents' perceptions of the impact of different types of play on their child's development. We were particularly interested in the differences in a child's engagement with a toy and the child-parent interaction and communication. In this descriptive study, we administered a questionnaire in order to collect data from 306 parents of children of an average age of 3.6 years. The results show that parents perceived traditional toys as the most stimulating toys for a toddler's sensory, motor, cognitive, and socio-emotional development. During analogue play, significantly more parent-child interaction, as well as more language input from parents and toddlers, occurred. Parents also used different intervention and mediation strategies with different types of toys.

Profiles of Quality in Three Distinct Early Childhood Programs Using the Brief Early Childhood Quality Inventory (BEQI)

Quality early childhood care and education (ECCE) is important for young children's holistic healthy development. As ECCE scales, contextually relevant and feasible measurement is needed to inform policy and programs on strengths and areas for improvement. However, few measures have been designed for use across diverse contexts. Drawing on principles of mixed methods design, this study reports on a new approach to ECCE quality measurement: the Brief Early Childhood Quality Inventory. Using data from the USA, Liberia, and Colombia, results indicate variation in the items perceived as highly relevant to each setting and in the characteristics of classrooms including the degree of child autonomy, the types of activities, and in child/educator interactions and dialogue. However, despite this variation, a small set of items indicate potential functionality as cross-country anchor items. Findings lend support to the idea that quality measures can have some common elements with room for adaptation within and across settings. Future work in this area should address the possibility that the significance of these practices for child development also varies across settings.

Longitudinal links between maternal directives, children's engagement in family conversations, and child linguistic skills

Background

Research on mother-child verbal interaction is largely inspired by Vygotsky. The results align with his view that children acquire language and culture-specific ways of using language through actively participating in daily conversations with adults. Supporting Vygotsky's concept of the Zone of Proximal Development, the facilitative features of such conversations have been found to depend on age, the level of the child's language skills, and the interactional context. Most previous studies in the field have been conducted in English-speaking Western families with a focus on the first years of children's lives. As Estonian middle-class mothers have been found to put greater emphasis on controlling children than mothers from other cultural contexts, we included the frequency of using directives as one of the features of mothers' speech that might have an impact on child language development.

Aim

Accordingly, the current study explored the relative impact of various aspects of mother-child interaction (e.g., mothers' vocabulary diversity, use of attentional and behavioral directives, wh-questions, and the amount of children's talk) on children's language skills using data collected from Estonian middle-class families at two timepoints, 1 year apart. As a novel approach to this topic, the study also examined the correlation between mothers' input features and children's participation in the parent-child conversation.

Method

A total of 87 children aged 3;0 and 4;0 and their mothers participated in the study. We observed the mother-child interactions during a semistructured videotaped game played at home. Mothers reported their children's language skills via the ECDI-III. Children's language comprehension and production were measured using the examiner-administered NRDLS.

Results and conclusion

Although the results showed somewhat differential effects of various aspects of mothers' speech on different measures of child language skills at two timepoints, the diversity of mothers' speech was positively, and mothers' frequent use of directives negatively related to children's language skills. At both ages, the diversity of mothers' speech predicted the amount of children's verbal contribution to conversations. The findings will be discussed in light of Vygotskian and his followers' theoretical views and theories about child language development.

Virtual Grandparenting: Identifying Barriers to Supportive Video Chat between Grandparents and Grandchildren

Many grandparents today are physically separated from their families. Given that maintaining close family relationships (with both adult children and grandchildren) is associated with increased physical, mental, and emotional health across generations, it is important to determine how families can maintain close relationships with grandparents when physically separated. Technology offers one potential support: the proliferation of video chat. Recent work suggests that the frequency of video chat and the variety of behaviors engaged in during video calls predicts family closeness and enjoyment of using this communication method, regardless of the physical distance between parties. However, the frequency of grandparent-grandchild video chat varies across families. Here, we explore how demographic, physical (e.g., distance), technological (e.g., number of devices and barriers), and social factors (e.g., children are distracted) predicted: (1) whether or not video chat was used by grandparent-grandchild dyads, and (2) the frequency of video chat in the families using the technology. This work suggests that geographical distance, having met in person, and the number of devices owned were positive predictors of grandparents and grandchildren having ever video chatted. However, the factors associated with the frequency of video chat were different in the parent and grandparent models and included grandparents’ comfort with technology and the type of device used by the parent and child. These findings not only have implications for supporting grandparent-grandchild relationships but also for all family members separated by distance, immigration, incarceration, health emergencies, and displacement.

Face-to-face contact during infancy: How the development of gaze to faces feeds into infants' vocabulary outcomes

Infants acquire their first words through interactions with social partners. In the first year of life, infants receive a high frequency of visual and auditory input from faces, making faces a potential strong social cue in facilitating word-to-world mappings. In this position paper, we review how and when infant gaze to faces is likely to support their subsequent vocabulary outcomes. We assess the relevance of infant gaze to faces selectively, in three domains: infant gaze to different features within a face (that is, eyes and mouth); then to faces (compared to objects); and finally to more socially relevant types of faces. We argue that infant gaze to faces could scaffold vocabulary construction, but its relevance may be impacted by the developmental level of the infant and the type of task with which they are presented. Gaze to faces proves relevant to vocabulary, as gazes to eyes could inform about the communicative nature of the situation or about the labeled object, while gazes to the mouth could improve word processing, all of which are key cues to highlighting word-to-world pairings. We also discover gaps in the literature regarding how infants' gazes to faces (versus objects) or to different types of faces relate to vocabulary outcomes. An important direction for future research will be to fill these gaps to better understand the social factors that influence infant vocabulary outcomes.

Revisiting the simplification of adult language input in the context of naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions: A commentary

Naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBI) are an evidence-based class of early interventions for improving language and social communication skills in autistic children. However, relatively little is known about how individual elements of NDBI support child development. This commentary focuses on one common element across NDBI models: the simplification of adult language input. Advances in developmental science focusing on the length and complexity of adult spoken utterances suggests that natural, grammatical utterances facilitate comprehension and expressive language development in autistic and nonautistic children. Yet, NDBI tend to recommend shorter and simpler adult utterances. We close by describing directions for future research which would inform recommendations around adult language input in NDBI to optimally support child language and communication development.

From woof woof to dog: Interactions between parents' use of sound symbolic words and infants' vocabulary development

Sound symbols, such as "woof woof" for a dog's barking, imitate the physical properties of their referents. Turkish is a sound symbolically rich language that allows flexible use of such words in different linguistic forms. The current study examined Turkish-speaking parents' use of sound symbolic words to their 14- and 20-month-olds and the concurrent and longitudinal relations between parents' sound symbolic input and infants' vocabulary knowledge. Thirty-four (n = 34) infants were observed at Time-1 (M_age  = 14.23 months, SD = 1.11) and Time-2 (M_age  = 20.30 months, SD = 1.24) during free play sessions with their parents to examine parental input. Infants' vocabulary knowledge was assessed by a parental report. Both the quantity and quality of parental sound symbolic input changed between 14 and 20 months of age. Furthermore, infants' earlier vocabulary knowledge at 14 months negatively predicted parents' later sound symbolic input at 20 months. Last, parents' sound symbolic input was positively and concurrently associated with 14-month-olds' vocabulary knowledge but was negatively and concurrently associated with 20-month-olds' vocabulary levels. These findings suggest an early interaction between infants' exposure to sound symbolic input and their vocabulary development.

Financial concern reduces child directed speech in a socioeconomically diverse sample

Socioeconomic status predicts the quantity and nature of child-directed speech that parents produce. However, the mechanisms underlying this relationship remain unclear. This study investigated whether the cognitive load imposed by resource scarcity suppresses parent talk by examining time-dependent variation in child-directed speech in a socioeconomically diverse sample. We predicted that child-directed speech would be lowest at the end of the month when Americans report the greatest financial strain. 166 parents and their 2.5 to 3-year-old children (80 female) participated in a picture-book activity; the number of utterances, word tokens, and word types used by parents were calculated. All three parent language measures were negatively correlated with the date of the month the activity took place, and this relationship did not vary with parental education. These findings suggest that above and beyond individual properties of parents, contextual factors such as financial concerns exert influence on how parents interact with their children.

Shared Multimodal Input Through Social Coordination: Infants With Monolingual and Bilingual Learning Experiences

A growing number of children in the United States are exposed to multiple languages at home from birth. However, relatively little is known about the early process of word learning—how words are mapped to the referent in their child-centered learning experiences. The present study defined parental input operationally as the integrated and multimodal learning experiences as an infant engages with his/her parent in an interactive play session with objects. By using a head-mounted eye tracking device, we recorded visual scenes from the infant’s point of view, along with the parent’s social input with respect to gaze, labeling, and actions of object handling. Fifty-one infants and toddlers (aged 6–18 months) from an English monolingual or a diverse bilingual household were recruited to observe the early multimodal learning experiences in an object play session. Despite that monolingual parents spoke more and labeled more frequently relative to bilingual parents, infants from both language groups benefit from a comparable amount of socially coordinated experiences where parents name the object while the object is looked at by the infant. Also, a sequential path analysis reveals multiple social coordinated pathways that facilitate infant object looking. Specifically, young children’s attention to the referent objects is directly influenced by parent’s object handling. These findings point to the new approach to early language input and how multimodal learning experiences are coordinated socially for young children growing up with monolingual and bilingual learning contexts.

Socioeconomic Variations in the Frequency of Parent Number Talk: A Meta-Analysis

Using data from 12 studies, we meta-analyze correlations between parent number talk during interactions with their young children (mean sample age ranging from 22 to 79 months) and two aspects of family socioeconomics, parent education, and family income. Potential variations in correlation sizes as a function of study characteristics were explored. Statistically significant positive correlations were found between the amount of number talk in parent-child interactions and both parent education and family income (i.e., r = 0.12 for education and 0.14 for income). Exploratory moderator analyses provided some preliminary evidence that child age, as well as the average level of and variability in socioeconomic status, may moderate effect sizes. The implications of these findings are discussed with special attention to interpreting the practical importance of the effect sizes in light of family strengths and debate surrounding "word gaps".

How Many Palabras? Codeswitching and Lexical Diversity in Spanish-English Picture Books

Bilingual picture books have been growing in popularity, with caregivers, teachers, and researchers increasingly interested in understanding how picture books might be able to support the learning of words in two languages. In this study, we present the first evaluation of the quantity and quality of text contained within bilingual picture books in English and Spanish targeted to children ages 0–9 and available to parents in the United States. We focus specifically on a sample of codeswitching books (N = 45) which present text in one language embedded in another language. All books were transcribed and evaluated for (1) the number of words and utterances presented in each language; (2) the quality and complexity of text presented in each language; and (3) how switching occurred between the two languages. Results showed that although picture books in our sample presented predominantly English text and more complex English sentences, relatively more unique words were presented in Spanish. Furthermore, picture books in our sample presented frequent switching between languages, particularly within utterances. We suggest that bilingual picture books provide children with potentially enriching yet asymmetrical opportunities for learning in each language.

Naturalistic parent-child reading frequency and language development in toddlers with and without autism

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

The efficacy of parent-child reading for supporting language development has been well-established in the neurotypical (NT) literature. For children with autism spectrum disorder, (ASD) who may be at risk for delays in language development, prior research has shown promise for shared book-reading interventions. Yet there has been limited research on naturalistic parent-child reading with autistic children to date. The present study aimed to fill this missing link in the current literature.

METHODS

Fifty-seven autistic toddlers participated at two developmental time points: Time 1 (Mage = 30.4 months) and Time 2 (Mage = 43.8 months). An NT control group (N = 31) was matched on age to a subset of the ASD group (N = 33). We assessed group differences in parent-child reading frequency between age-matched NT and autistic groups. Using a one-year follow-up design, we evaluated the relationship between parent-child reading and autistic children's language development.

RESULTS

Cross-group comparisons revealed that parents of age-matched NT children reported significantly more frequent weekly parent-child reading than parents of autistic toddlers. After a one-year follow-up with the autistic group, within-group analyses revealed that greater frequency of parent-child reading (controlling for maternal education, books in the home, and autism symptom severity) was associated with larger growth in autistic toddlers' receptive and expressive language skills.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

These findings have important clinical implications as they emphasize the potential of parent-child reading for supporting autistic children's language development. Findings demonstrate that frequency of parent-child reading is associated with language development over one year. Findings also demonstrate that parents of autistic children engage in less frequent parent-child reading than parents of age-matched NT peers, suggesting these parents may face more barriers to implementing parent-child reading than parents of NT children.

When the Bough Breaks: A systematic review and meta-analysis of mental health symptoms in mothers of young children during the COVID-19 pandemic

Parents have experienced considerable challenges and stress during the COVID‐19 pandemic, which may impact their well‐being. This meta‐analysis sought to identify: (1) the prevalence of depression and anxiety in parents of young children (<age 5) during the COVID‐19 pandemic, and (2) sociodemographic (e.g., parent age, being racially minoritized) and methodological moderators (e.g., study quality) that explain heterogeneity among studies. A systematic search was conducted across four databases from January 1, 2020 to March 3, 2021. A total of 18 non‐overlapping studies (8981 participants), all focused on maternal mental health, met inclusion criteria. Random‐effect meta‐analyses were conducted. Pooled prevalence estimates for clinically significant depression and anxiety symptoms for mothers of young children during the COVID‐19 pandemic were 26.9% (95% CI: 21.3–33.4) and 41.9% (95% CI: 26.7–58.8), respectively. Prevalence of clinically elevated depression and anxiety symptoms were higher in Europe and North America and among older mothers. Clinically elevated depressive symptoms were lower in studies with a higher percentage of individuals who were racially minoritized. In comparison, clinically elevated anxiety symptoms were higher among studies of low study quality and in samples with highly educated mothers. Policies and resources targeting improvements in maternal mental health are essential.