The roles of receptive and productive language in children’s socioemotional development

Relations between early majority language and socioemotional development in children with different language backgrounds

This study explored whether the directionality of the relation between majority language and various facets of socioemotional development (three to 5 years old) differs between children with different language backgrounds. 12,951 children (49% girls; 85% White, 6% Pakistani and Bangladeshi, 3% Black, 3% Mix, 2% Indian) from the British Millennium Cohort Study (2001-2006) were included in two-time-point cross-lagged analyses. Models controlling for important covariates found a bidirectional association for monolinguals (βs = .05, -.07, -.04), a unidirectional effect of majority language on socioemotional difficulties for dual language learners (DLLs) speaking English and minority language(s) at home (β = .14), and a unidirectional effect of socioemotional strength on majority language for DLLs speaking only minority language(s) at home (β = -.17).

High Quality, Equity, and Assessment: An Analysis of Variables Impacting English Learner Standardized Science Test Performance and Implications for Construct Validity

In the United States, assessment is seen as a lever that can facilitate high-quality education. This study on English learners, students whose native language is not English, was based on data from eighth-grade English learners’ performance on science general and content-specific (physical, life, and earth science) standardized exams and an English language proficiency exam. The researchers utilized regression analysis to examine factors (i.e., socioeconomic status, home language, English language proficiency, and receptive and productive elements of language) that are predictive of English learner performance in general and content-specific science standardized assessments to identify implications for construct validity of high-stakes science assessments. The research question is as follows: What factors influence the performance of English learners on a standardized science assessment, including overall performance and content-specific domains? Three main findings emerged from this research study. First, this study confirms previous research indicating that socioeconomic status and English language proficiency are predictive of English learners’ achievement on content-based standardized tests. Second, this study adds to current research by providing evidence that productive language scores are the most significant predictors of English learner science achievement, in comparison to receptive language scores, overall English language proficiency scores, home language, and socioeconomic status. Third, this study adds to the body of evidence needed to challenge the validity of standardized science tests for English learner populations. The findings of this study challenge the construct validity of science content-based assessments for English learners, emphasizing the importance of productive language in academic performance.

Prosocial Behavior in Toddlerhood: The Contribution of Emotion Knowledge, Theory of Mind, and Language Ability

While scholars have previously investigated the respective contributions of emotional knowledge and language ability to toddlers' prosociality, no studies to date have featured a battery of multiple direct measures assessing both of these abilities plus theory of mind on the one hand, and prosocial behavior on the other hand. In contrast, we conducted the present cross-sectional study with a view to evaluating the unique contributions of each of these three social cognition variables as antecedents of prosocial conduct during toddlerhood, measuring them via a series of individually administered standardized tasks. Furthermore, given that the existing literature documents mixed gender effects, we also set out to explore the role of gender in toddlers' prosociality. Finally, we also controlled for any effects of age on the patterns of association among the key variables. Participants were 127 children aged between 24 and 36 months (M = 29.2 months; SD = 3.5). We identified significant correlations among the variables under study. In addition, stepwise multiple regression analysis suggested that each of the social cognition (SC) abilities – i.e., emotion knowledge, theory of mind, and language - made a unique contribution to explaining variance in prosocial behaviors (PB). These findings show that SC is already associated with PB in toddlerhood and suggest the importance of fostering social cognition competence from the early years, with a view to increasing children's propensity to engage in prosocial conduct.

Adversity in early childhood: Long-term effects on early academic skills

BACKGROUND

The dimensional adversity model (McLaughlin & Sheridan, 2016) proposes that deprivation and threat affect child development differently. However, empirical support for the dimensional adversity model stems predominately from adolescent samples.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to examine if deprivation and threat experiences in infancy have differential effects on pre-academic skills in early childhood. Furthermore, we addressed the effect of chronic vs. temporary adversity exposure in infancy.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

The population-based sample consisted of 3481 infants (49% girls). New-borns and their families were followed longitudinally (6 months to 6 years of age).

METHODS

Based on parental information, we computed four deprivation variables and three threat variables. Pre-academic cognitive and social-emotional skills were measured with a math and a vocabulary test and parental questionnaires on emotion regulation and behavioral problems.

RESULTS

Results showed that infant deprivation (but not threat) is negatively associated with math scores (β = -0.06) and language skills (β = -0.04) in kindergarten. However, infant threat and deprivation were both associated with behavioral problems (β = 0.06; β = 0.04) and emotion-regulation difficulties (β = 0.04; β = 0.03) in kindergarten. Analyses comparing chronic vs. temporary adversity exposure showed that chronic exposure was strongly related to all cognitive and social-emotional outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

We found partial support for the differential effects of deprivation and threat on pre-academic skills. Furthermore, the results suggest that particularly chronic adversity poses a potential risk for development - across domains of cognition and emotions.

Maternal depressive symptoms and maternal child-directed speech: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Up to 1 in 5 children are exposed to maternal depressive symptoms. Children exposed to maternal depressive symptoms have poorer language skills than children not exposed to maternal depressive symptoms. Due to the crucial role of children's language skills in school readiness and academic achievement, it is imperative to understand the factors that underlie the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and children's language skills. Previous reviews have examined the mechanistic role of social-pragmatic features of mother-child interactions. However, the literature on the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and data-providing aspects of mother-child interactions, including child-directed speech, has yet to be consolidated. In this systematic review, we present maternal child-directed speech as a potential pathway through which maternal depressive symptoms influence children's language skills.

METHODS

Following PRISMA guidelines, three database searches produced 546 articles related to maternal depressive symptoms, child-directed speech, and children's language skills, ten of which examined the relation between maternal depressive symptoms and child-directed speech.

RESULTS

Findings revealed that increases in maternal depressive symptoms may be associated with decreases in amount of child-directed speech but not necessarily with decreases in the complexity of child-directed speech.

LIMITATIONS

The studies in this review varied in sample size, the inclusion of important sociodemographic factors, and the operationalization of depression and child-directed speech, thereby limiting conclusions, especially about whether maternal depressive symptoms are associated with the complexity of child-directed speech.

CONCLUSIONS

This review has implications for prevention and intervention efforts aimed at optimizing children's language skills; child-directed speech is modifiable, and mothers experiencing depressive symptoms may benefit from resources encouraging rich child-directed speech.

The Emergence of 5-Year-Olds' Behavioral Difficulties: Analyzing Risk and Protective Pathways in the United Kingdom and Germany

This study aimed to advance our understanding of 5-year-olds' behavioral difficulties by modeling and testing both mediational protective and risk pathways simultaneously. Drawing on two national samples from different Western European countries-the United Kingdom (13,053) and Germany (2,022), the proposed model considered observed sensitive parental interactive behaviors and tested child vocabulary as protective pathways connecting parental education with children's behavioral outcomes; the risk pathways focused on negative parental disciplinary practices linking (low) parental education, parental distress, and children's difficult temperament to children's behavioral difficulties. Further, the tested model controlled for families' income as well as children's sex and formal child care attendance. Children with comparatively higher educated parents experienced more sensitive interactive behavior, had more advanced vocabulary, and exhibited fewer behavioral difficulties. Children with a comparatively higher level of difficult temperament or with parents who suffered from distress tended to experience more negative disciplinary behavior and exhibited more behavioral difficulties. Additionally, children's vocabulary skills served as a mechanism mediating the association between parental education and children's behavioral difficulties. Overall, we found similar patterns of results across the United Kingdom and Germany with both protective and risk pathways contributing simultaneously to children's behavioral development. The findings suggest that promoting parents' sensitive interactive behaviors, favorable disciplinary practices, and child's vocabulary skills have potential for preventing early behavioral difficulties.

Teaching the Teachers About Language Support Strategies: Effects on Young Children's Language Development

The feeling thinking talking (FTT) intervention was designed because early childhood seems to be a prime time for fostering young children's language skills. This intervention involved teaching teachers from N = 28 kindergarten groups in N = 13 German kindergartens language support strategies (LSS) to be used in everyday conversations with the children in their care. The FTT intervention was evaluated in a business-as-usual control group design with N = 281 children (mean age = 49.82 months, range = 33-66 months at T1, mixed SES) who were individually tested using objective tests on grammar, vocabulary and working memory before (T1) and after the FTT intervention (T2), and in a follow-up about one year after T1 (T3). After propensity matching was applied, multilevel models demonstrated that the children taught by the intervention group teachers made faster progress in their understanding of sentences, their application of morphological rules, and their memory for sentences when numerous covariates (child age, gender, behavioral self-regulation, multilingual upbringing, and family SES) were controlled. Results suggest that complex language processing abilities in young children can be promoted by a teacher-led intervention in early childhood education. Improved language skills will further all children's academic and social success in school.

Language and socioemotional development in early childhood: The role of conversational turns

This study examines the role of language environment (number of conversational turns) in the development of socioemotional competencies between 18 and 30 months. The language environment of 43 infants and their social-emotional competencies were measured at 18 months and again at 30 months. Multiple regressions showed a significant contribution of turns at 18 months on socioemotional competencies at 30 months, controlling for their initial levels, child vocalizations, maternal warmth, and social risk. Cross-lagged analysis revealed that the direction of the longitudinal relation between turns and emotional competencies is more likely to go from turns to socioemotional development than the other way around. Implications for theory and research are discussed.

Long-term interrelations between socio-emotional and language competencies among preschool dual language learners in Germany

BACKGROUND

Recent research has shown that socio-emotional and language competencies are positively associated with each other. However, few studies have explored these associations for the second language competencies (L2) of young dual language learners (DLLs).

AIMS

This longitudinal study investigated possible bidirectional associations between L2 language (expressive and receptive vocabulary) and socio-emotional competencies among preschool DLLs.

SAMPLE

The participants were 216 German DLLs (M_T1  = 52.67 months; SD = 9.54; 53% girls) who were recruited from 19 preschools.

METHOD

L2 skills were assessed at three time points over the course of one year using standardized tests for expressive and receptive vocabulary. Children's teachers rated their socio-emotional strengths and behaviour concerns. Cross-lagged panel analyses were used to examine the temporal interplay and longitudinal directionality of effects controlling for children's age, sex, type of language acquisition (sequential vs. simultaneous), and socio-economic status.

RESULTS

Vocabulary skills and socio-emotional skills were positively correlated with one another at each time point, such that children with better language proficiency were rated by their teachers as children with higher levels of socio-emotional competence. Moreover, our results provided support for an effect of early socio-emotional skills (T1) on the relative increase in L2 vocabulary skills (T2 & T3), particularly for expressive vocabulary. However, our results did not demonstrate a statistically significant effect of better L2 language skills on the relative change in socio-emotional competencies.

CONCLUSION

Our results suggest unidirectional longitudinal relations between the socio-emotional and L2 skills, signifying the role of socio-emotional skills for the vocabulary development of DLLs.