Examining Patterns of Infant Equipment-Use and Associated Language Exposure

• In Event: Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Topic - Language, Communication

Abstract

Documenting infants’ day-to-day experiences is a critical step towards understanding how variation in the early environment might influence child outcomes (DeBarbaro, 2019). One important component of early experience is language input. Researchers have documented substantial variability in the amount of overall language spoken to and around infants, and this variability has been linked to later child abilities in both correlational studies (e.g., Weisleder & Fernald, 2013; Golinkoff et al., 2018) and RCTs (Feil et al., 2020; Ferjan et al., 2019). However, it remains unclear what specific factors shape infants’ everyday experiences of language.

Given that language input is closely tied to immediate physical context (Mirault et al., 2018), we hypothesized that where infants spend time throughout the day may help explain variability in language exposure. Specifically, we predicted that the degree to which families make use of “infant equipment” (e.g., swings, exersaucers, car seats) in the first months of life would be associated with language input. The aim of the present study is to assess whether and how patterns of equipment use relate to the quantity and quality of language exposure across 3 days of naturalistic data collection using EMA.

We analyzed data from 48 mothers and their 4-6 month-old infants. Dyads completed 3 days of remote data collection regarding the language environment (using LENA recording technology) and equipment-use. Equipment-use was assessed via semi-randomly delivered SMS surveys (12 per day) that asked mothers to provide their infant’s current location and report whether or not their infant was awake. Total Adult Word Counts (AWCs) and Conversational Turn Counts (CTCs) were extracted from LENA software and averaged across recording days. Overall rate of equipment-use was obtained by dividing the total number of survey responses indicating awake use of equipment (any independently-standing devices that an infant can be strapped into) by the total number of awake survey responses (possible range of 0-1, with a 1 indicating use of equipment on 100% of awake survey responses). Rate of equipment-use ranged from 0 to .65, M=.24, SD=.13. For analyses, values greater than 2.5SD from the mean were winsorized to the next closest value.

We found significant negative correlations between rate of equipment-use and both average daily AWCs (see Figure 1), r(46)=-.46, p=.001, 95% CI[-0.65, -0.20], and average daily CTCs (see Figure 2), r(46)=-.34, p=.019, 95%CI[-0.57, -0.06], such that higher rates of equipment-use were associated with lower levels of both overall adult speech and responsive interactions with the infant. These correlations remained significant when income-to-needs ratio was included as a covariate.

These findings are the first to support a link between equipment-use and infants’ experience of language. While there are likely many practical benefits to the use of infant equipment, these findings suggest potential consequences of extended equipment-use on language input if this association is causal. Future work will focus on applications of these findings and seek to determine directionality of the potential link between infant location and language exposure using both within- and between-subject designs.

Authors

• Lauren Malachowski, Vanderbilt University
  Presenting Author

• Amy Needham, Vanderbilt University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kathryn Humphreys, Vanderbilt University
  Non-Presenting Author