3-142 - Children´s Language Ability: The Role of Type, Quantity, and Quality Of Parents’ Language Input.

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Several studies have documented the importance of language development in children´s life (e.g., NICHD, 2005). Even before children can talk parents promote their languages skills through day-a-day interactions. The literature has examined type, quality, and quantity of the language input in parent-child interactions; but the specific importance of each aspect in children´s language ability is still discussed (e.g., Rowe, 2012). Moreover, studies have shown that fathers and mothers may interact differently with their children contributing in unique ways to children´s development (Malin et al., 2014). More fine-grained analysis is needed to understand what specific features of parents´ communicative interactions with their children help them to learn language. In the proposed paper symposium, we provide a coherent approach to the language environment of young children and examine how different aspects of it relate to children´s language development. Paper 1 examines which qualities of the mother-child book reading interaction at 10 months predict children´s later language skills; paper 2 focuses on the quality and quantity of fathers´ and mothers´ input with their 3-year-old children and how each aspect relates to child vocabulary development. In paper 3, the authors examine how turn-taking behaviors of low SES mothers and fathers relate to children´s language skills at 18 months. Finally, paper 4 looks at how quality and quantity of parents´ input interact to predict children´s later development in preschool children. Taken together, these papers deepen our understanding of specific parenting practices that contribute to language development.

Sub Unit

• Language, Communication

Chairs

• Fernanda Prieto, Centro de Apego y Regulación Emocional (CARE), Facultad de Psicología, Universidad del Desarrollo

• Daniela Aldoney, Universidad del Desarrollo

Individual Presentations

• Parent-Infant book Reading and Later Language Development - Presenting Author: Amber Muhinyi, University of Manchester; Non-Presenting Author: Meredith Rowe, Harvard University

• Mothers’ and Fathers´ Language Quality and Vocabulary Development of 3-year-old Children - Presenting Author: Fernanda Prieto, Centro de Apego y Regulación Emocional (CARE), Facultad de Psicología, Universidad del Desarrollo; Non-Presenting Author: Daniela Aldoney, Universidad del Desarrollo; Non-Presenting Author: Jessica Vidal, Universidad del Desarrollo; Non-Presenting Author: Soledad Coo, Universidad del Desarrollo

• Quantity and Quality: Individual Differences in Early Language Input and Relations to Later Child Vocabulary - Presenting Author: Lillian Masek, Temple University; Non-Presenting Author: Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University; Non-Presenting Author: Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Univ of DE

• Early Turn-Taking With low-SES Mothers and Fathers: Links Between Serve and Return and Children’s Language Development - Presenting Author: Yu Chen, University of Maryland; Non-Presenting Author: Natasha Cabrera, University of Maryland; Non-Presenting Author: Jennifer Acosta, University of Maryland; Non-Presenting Author: Carol Barrios, University of Maryland