1-044 - Beyond the Word Gap: Mother and child care teacher language input and language/literacy outcomes for rural low-SES children

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Language development studies have demonstrated the importance of language input for children’s language and literacy skills. The landmark study by Hart and Risley (1995) suggested that, for a small sample of children, maternal language input differed dramatically by family SES, leading to implications of a seemingly-impenetrable “word gap” (Hindman et al., 2016). However, “word gap” research has frequently failed to explore language input in both home and child care environments, examine the salience of language experiences for African American children, or address the confound between race and SES. Recent evidence suggests that race and SES (e.g., African American, low-SES) should not be assumed to be consistently associated with lower language skills (Gardner-Neblett & Iruka, 2015).

This symposium’s papers used data from the Family Life Project (FLP), a representative sample of 1,292 children born to mothers living in rural US. FLP oversampled for African American families and families in poverty. Paper 1 examined relationships among maternal language input from 6–36 months and children’s pre-K language/literacy skills. Paper 2 explored associations between child care teacher-child positive verbal interactions from 6–36 months and children’s kindergarten-third grade language/literacy outcomes. Paper 3, which used the same outcomes as Paper 2, focused on maternal language diversity and complexity from 6–60 months as predictors of interest.

These papers offer insight into the unique interplay of language input and children’s language and literacy development from pre-K–third grade. Implications for children across socioeconomic status and for African American and non-African American children will be addressed.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chair

• Mary Bratsch-Hines, UNC-Chapel Hill

Discussant

• Iheoma U. Iruka, University of Nebraska Buffett Early Childhood Institute

Individual Presentations

• Links between mothers’ language input over time and children’s preschool literacy skills - Presenting Author: Eleni Zgourou, UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education; Mary Bratsch-Hines, UNC-Chapel Hill; Lynne Vernon-Feagans, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Child care teacher-child positive verbal interactions from 6–36 months and language and literacy outcomes through third grade - Presenting Author: Mary Bratsch-Hines, UNC-Chapel Hill; Lynne Vernon-Feagans, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Maternal language input in early childhood and language and literacy skills in elementary school - Presenting Author: Lynne Vernon-Feagans, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Mary Bratsch-Hines, UNC-Chapel Hill