Talk outside the box: Parents' decontextualized language during preschool years relates to child numeracy and literacy skills in middle childhood

Children's literacy and numeracy skills are fundamental for early academic performance and later academic success, mental health, and employment prospects in adulthood. Given that parents play a key role in promoting child development, identifying early parenting behaviors that predict literacy and numeracy skills is a research imperative. Emerging evidence suggests that parental use of decontextualized language (DL)-talk that requires cognitive abstraction and transcends the here and now-predicts children's literacy skills. However, its relation to numeracy remains underexplored. Accordingly, the current study examined how DL during interaction with children in infancy (T1) and preschool years (T2) relates to child literacy and numeracy in middle childhood (T3). Participants were 26 Irish mother-father-child triads (16 female children). At T1 and T2, participants engaged in 5-min interactions that were coded for DL. At T3, child literacy and numeracy were assessed using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition and teacher report of child scores on national standardized tests. Controlling for child age and contextualized utterances, child reading in middle childhood was negatively related to maternal and child DL in infancy but was positively related to DL during preschool years, suggesting that the benefits of DL may become apparent later in development. Mothers', fathers', and children's DL during preschool years was also positively linked with child numeracy in middle childhood. Thus, embedding DL in conversation with children may have positive domain-specific and cross-domain effects on children's literacy and numeracy performance. Findings provide incentive for future research to examine relations between DL and children's school performance across a wider range of developmental domains.

Maternal depression and personality traits in association with child neuropsychological and behavioral development in preschool years: Mother-child cohort (Rhea Study) in Crete, Greece

BACKGROUND

Poor perinatal maternal mental health has been linked with negative outcomes on early child development; however, the importance of maternal personality has been neglected thus far. We aimed to examine the effects of antenatal and postnatal maternal mental health, including assessment of maternal personality characteristics, on child neuropsychological and behavioral development at preschool years in a population based mother-child cohort (Rhea Study) in Crete, Greece.

METHOD

Self-reported measures of maternal depression (EPDS), trait anxiety (STAI-Trait) and personality traits (EPQ-R) were assessed in a sample of 288 women at 28-32 weeks of gestation. A larger sample of 642 mothers completed the EPDS scale at 8 weeks postpartum. Children's neuropsychological (MSCA) and behavioral (ADHDT and SDQ) development were assessed at 4 years of age. Linear regression analyses were used to estimate the associations between the exposures and outcomes of interest after adjustment for potential confounders.

RESULTS

Regarding child neuropsychological development, increased postnatal depressive symptoms were associated with child's perceptual performance, whereas increased maternal psychoticism was linked with child's motor ability at 4 years of age. Furthermore, elevated levels of maternal depression during pregnancy and postpartum, and the predisposing personality characteristics of trait anxiety and neuroticism, were associated with children's behavioral difficulties.

LIMITATIONS

A clinical diagnostic instrument for maternal mental health was not used and assessment of children's behavior was based on maternal report.

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest that poor perinatal maternal mental health and an adverse personality profile may be associated with impaired child neuropsychological and behavioral development at preschool years.

Comorbid Development of Disruptive Behaviors from age 1½ to 5 Years in a Population Birth-Cohort and Association with School Adjustment in First Grade

Comorbidity is frequent among disruptive behaviors (DB) and leads to mental health problems during adolescence and adulthood. However, the early developmental origins of this comorbidity have so far received little attention. This study investigated the developmental comorbidity of three DB categories during early childhood: hyperactivity-impulsivity, non-compliance, and physical aggression. Joint developmental trajectories of DB were identified based on annual mother interviews from age 1½ to 5 years, in a population-representative birth-cohort (N = 2045). A significant proportion of children (13 % to 21 %, depending on the type of DB) consistently displayed high levels of hyperactivity-impulsivity, non-compliance, or physical aggression from age 1½ to 5 years. Developmental comorbidity was frequent, especially for boys: 10 % of boys and 3.7 % of girls were on a stable trajectory with high levels of symptoms for the three categories of DB. Significant associations were observed between preschool joint-trajectories of DB and indicators of DB and school adjustment assessed by teachers in first grade. Preschoolers who maintained high levels of hyperactivity-impulsivity, non-compliance, and physical aggression, displayed the highest number of DB symptoms in first grade for all categories according to their teacher. They were also among the most disadvantaged of their class for school adjustment indicators. Thus, DB manifestations and developmental comorbidity of DB are highly prevalent in infancy. Early childhood appears to be a critical period to prevent persistent and comorbid DB that leads to impairment at the very beginning of school attendance and to long-term serious health and social adjustment problems.