1-127 - Resources Talk: A Closer Look at SES, the Home Environment, and Language-Related Outcomes

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Accumulating evidence suggests that socioeconomic (SES) differences in language skills emerge early in life, partly due to properties of the early language environments in which children are raised. Despite this rich body of work, less is known about the pathways through which a child’s language environment influences later outcomes, or why lower-SES children receive less child-directed speech (CDS) than higher-SES children. This symposium bridges these gaps, bringing together new research on SES, language and neural development, and CDS. Paper 1 shows SES disparities in 3-5 year-olds’ vocabulary and syntax knowledge, as well as language-learning capacity (e.g., fast-mapping), suggesting that lower-SES children’s language development is limited by their ability to learn new words; this is mediated by the quantity of books children have. Paper 2 suggests that the language environment drives these SES differences in language learning, finding that children who hear more speech at 28-32 months generate predictions during language processing. Paper 3 reveals that CDS is related to both reading outcomes and structural brain development. Moreover, structural brain development mediates the link between parental education and reading outcomes. Finally, Paper 4 explores the cause of SES disparities in CDS, and shows that reminders of resource scarcity systematically reduce the amount of CDS that high-SES caregivers use with their children. Taken together, this symposium highlights the importance of CDS for language, neural, and educational outcomes, and suggests that both physical and cognitive effects of resource scarcity may contribute to SES disparities in CDS.

Sub Unit

• Diversity, Equity & Social Justice

Chairs

• Monica E. Ellwood-Lowe, University of California, Berkeley

• Mahesh Srinivasan, UC Berkeley

Individual Presentations

• Socioeconomic Disparities in Language Learning Capacity: Evidence from Dual Language Learners - Presenting Author: Rufan Luo, Rutgers University-Camden; Non-Presenting Author: Amy Pace, University of Washington; Non-Presenting Author: Dani Levine, Temple University; Non-Presenting Author: Aquiles Iglesias, University of Delaware; Non-Presenting Author: Jill de Villiers, Smith College; Non-Presenting Author: Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University; Non-Presenting Author: Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Univ of DE; Non-Presenting Author: Mary Sweig Wilson, University of Vermont & Laureate Learning Systems

• Variation in Home Language Input is Linked to Predictive Language Processing - Presenting Author: Tracy Reuter, Princeton University; Non-Presenting Author: Casey Lew-Williams, Princeton University

• Socioeconomic Disparities in Language Input are Associated with Children’s Language-Related Brain Structure - Presenting Author: Emily Merz, Teachers College, Columbia University; Non-Presenting Author: Elaine A. Maskus, Teachers College, Columbia University; Non-Presenting Author: Samantha A. Melvin, Teachers College, Columbia University; Non-Presenting Author: Xiaofu He, Columbia University Medical Center; Non-Presenting Author: Kimberly G. Noble, Teachers College, Columbia University

• What Accounts for Socioeconomic Differences in Child-Directed Speech? The Role of Resource Scarcity - Presenting Author: Monica E. Ellwood-Lowe, University of California, Berkeley; Non-Presenting Author: Ruthe Foushee, UC Berkeley; Non-Presenting Author: Mahesh Srinivasan, UC Berkeley