Poster #109 - Caregiver Interactions with Children with Language Impairment in a Latino and Non-Latino Sample

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Language, Communication

Integrative Statement

Differences in parenting practices should be considered for caregiver-implemented interventions (Domenech Rodríguez, Baumann, & Schwartz, 2011; Calzada, 2010; van Kleeck, 1994; Kummerer, 2010). Hispanic children represent the fastest growing population of young children in the U.S. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014) and Spanish is the most widely spoken language other than English in U.S. homes (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). Some studies have looked at how some cultural beliefs influence parenting in Hispanic families. For example, many Hispanic parents are likely to value obedience and respeto over autonomy and independence (Calzada, 2010) and Hispanic parents from low-income households have been described as ascribing to a “protective” parenting style that is high on warmth and demandingness and low to medium on granting autonomy (Domenech Rodríguez, Donovick, & Crowley, 2009). However, no studies have examined how cultural differences affect specific strategies parents use in interacting with their young children identified with language impairment.
The main goal of this paper is to examine differences in caregiver use of naturalistic language teaching strategies with young children with language impairments (ages 30-42 months). Participants include 40 caregiver-child dyads; 20 dyads are low-income Hispanic Spanish-speaking families, and 20 dyads are English-speaking non-Hispanic families. Data for this paper come from participants in the Roberts and Kaiser (2015) EMT study and an ongoing trial of EMT en Español (R21DC015850). Children in both studies were eligible if they demonstrated significant language delays and cognition within normal range. Children were matched on gender, age, IQ, and Preschool Language Scale-5th Edition scores (PLS-5; PLS-5 Spanish; Zimmerman, Steiner, & Pond, 2012). Caregivers differ in language spoken, income, and education level. The Spanish-speaking caregivers had lower income and education levels.
Baseline data from interactions between caregivers and their children are utilized to examine differences. Caregivers interacted with their children in a 15-minute pretend “picnic” setting, which included some caregiving routines, play routines, cleaning up toys, and book sharing. Interactions were transcribed using SALT (Miller & Iglesias, 2012) and coded for caregiver use of EMT naturalistic language teaching strategies. Strategies include: (1) percentage of responsiveness, (2) percentage of matched turns, (3) percentage of use of child language targets, and (4) percentage of use of expansions.
The main research question is: Are there differences in caregiver use of naturalistic language teaching strategies?
Preliminary results show the Spanish-speaking caregivers are significantly more responsive (M=.99, SD=.01, t(39)=4.39, p<.001) than English-speaking caregivers (M=.90 SD=.08). Spanish-speaking caregivers also use a higher percentage of child targets (M=.16 SD=.09, t(39)=5.38, p<.001) than the English-speaking caregivers (M=.04, SD=.04) at baseline. There were no significant differences in use of matched turns (t(39)=0.70991, p=.48) or expansions (t(39)=0.59, p=.55) at baseline for the two groups. English-speaking caregivers used significantly more words (M=578, SD=198, t(39)= 2.34, p=.02) than Spanish-speaking caregivers (M=430, SD=202) in the interactions with their children. These preliminary results suggest some strengths in the interactive style of Spanish-speaking caregivers from low-income backgrounds with their young children with language impairment that can be utilized in planning interventions for this population.

Authors

• Tatiana Nogueira Peredo, Vanderbilt University
  Presenting Author

• Kelsey Dillehay, Vanderbilt University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ann Kaiser, Vanderbilt University
  Non-Presenting Author