Poster #141 - New Insights into Early Language Environments of Low Income Infants through Innovative Methods

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Infants’ early language experiences are foundational to their later school readiness. Extensive research in developmental science has focused on the nature of parental language input to infants, primarily using structured tasks in the lab and home. This body of research has generated important insights on how the quantity and quality of language directed to infants shapes their learning; however, complementary studies have also shown that structured tasks capture only one aspect of infants’ naturalistic language experiences in the home (Tamis-LeMonda, Kuchirko, Luo & Escobar, 2017), limiting our understanding of language inputs in infant’s everyday settings.

LENA audio devices are being increasingly used as a cost-effective approach to describe infants’ language environments (Ganek, Eriks-Brophy, 2018; VanDam et al., 2016). We aim to assess how complementary self-report strategies can capitalize on the window of opportunity provided by LENA into infant’s language environments. More specifically, we examine whether simultaneous text-based maternal self-report and time diaries could be cost-effective, supplementary methods to broaden and ground the information gathered through audio recordings.

Collaboratively with [City]’s [Program Name], 411 mother-infant pairs were recruited during their first home visit to participate in a randomized control study. Approximately one-third of the study sample were first-time mothers. Most mothers, 81 percent, reported receiving support from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). Other notable characteristics of the sample include the very low rates of concern about maternal depressive symptoms and relatively stable residential addresses. Mothers in the experimental group automatically received text messages with a variety of early language and literacy tips whereas the mothers in the control group received the usual free educational packet provided by the [Program Name]. A subsample of these mothers were contacted at the baby’s 4 to 6 month birthday to seek consent to collect audio data. Mothers who consented received LENA devices during the early morning that were subsequently picked up the next day. Simultaneously mothers received questions about interactions with their infant via text message to report the frequency of target activities, such as talking, singing, reading, and playing during certain times of the day. Mothers were also asked to complete time diaries, recording the daily activities and the individuals who spent time with the infant.

16 hours of audio recording data were collected from 35 low income infants’ homes. Data were imported into Datavyu where the onset and offset of each target activity that took place was tagged. After quantifying the duration of target activities as assessed by direct measures, we will estimate the explanatory power of the maternal self-reports for the observed variation in target activities through multivariate regression analysis, controlling for demographic characteristics including maternal depressive concern, first time parenting, number of children, and receipt of WIC as controls. This study will provide an opportunity to holistically capture the natural language environments of infants from low-income households through analyzing over 560 hours of audio data coupled with maternal reports of time spent with infants.

Authors

• Lerzan Z Coskun, NYU
  Presenting Author

• Yana Kuchirko, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lisa Gennetian, Institute for Human Development and Social Change, NYU
  Non-Presenting Author