3-237 - New Perspectives on Early Language Input, Learning Outcomes, and SES

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The language that young children learn is a function of the language input they experience. An influential body of work has suggested that this input/uptake relation is moderated by socioeconomic status (SES), such that children in low-SES households tend to hear less language and tend to have poorer early language outcomes, in turn leading to poorer school performance (Hart & Risley, 1995 et seq). In recent years, this general narrative has been the subject of vigorous debate, with critiques leveled at both the nature of the measures (e.g., quantity of language input) and the causal claim more generally. Our symposium focuses on methodological improvements that allow researchers to go beyond the zero-order correlations between language quantity and vocabulary size using new techniques, analyses, and datasets.
The first abstract argues that measurement stability is critical in characterizing children’s language and uses two large-sample investigations to better characterize both the stability of children’s language environment and the verbal skills/SES relation. The second uses a large dataset to match vocabulary across groups of children and investigate the differing roles played by input quantity and quality for high- vs. low-vocabulary children. Following this thread, the third characterizes distinct dimensions of quality in an in-lab sample of dyads, linking features of parent-child interaction to within-session learning. Finally, the fourth asks whether individual words – as well as vocabulary size as a whole – carry signals relating to demographic factors like SES, helping to identify specific differences in children’s home environments.

Sub Unit

• Language, Communication

Chair

• Mika Braginsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Individual Presentations

• Are Early Life Language Experiences Key to SES-related Disadvantages? - Presenting Author: Sophie von Stumm, The London School of Economics and Political Science

• Examining Socioeconomic Differences Among Children who are Struggling, Average, and Excelling in Language Skills - Presenting Author: Lillian Masek, Temple University; Non-Presenting Author: Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University; Non-Presenting Author: Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Univ of DE

• Parent Input Styles and Toddlers’ Word Learning - Presenting Author: Ran Wei, Harvard University; Non-Presenting Author: Samuel Ronfard, Boston University; Non-Presenting Author: Diana Leyva, Davidson College; Non-Presenting Author: Meredith Rowe, Harvard University

• Demographic Effects on the Composition of Children’s Early Vocabulary - Presenting Author: Mika Braginsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Non-Presenting Author: Virginia A. Marchman, Stanford University; Non-Presenting Author: Michael C. Frank, Stanford University