The Role of SES, Stress, and Language Input on Cognitive Development in at-risk Children

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Children’s early experiences have a profound impact on cognitive development, including language, executive functioning, and associated neural development. Typically, environmental risk factors–such as low socioeconomic status (SES), caregiver stress, and reduced language exposure–are examined in isolation; however, this limits our understanding of their mechanistic relationships, potential interactions, and protective factors. This symposium integrates multi-disciplinary research with diverse participant samples (low-SES, multilingual, infants at increased familial likelihood for autism) to examine how varied environmental factors impact neurocognitive development. In the first paper, the authors find that bilingual, low-income preschoolers exhibit an advantage in novel word learning, independent of their vocabulary knowledge. In the second paper, the authors find that caregiver stress, but not depression, influences linguistic input in the home environment, which translates to differences in language outcomes, in infants with and without familial likelihood for autism. In the third paper, the authors find that different features of children’s early language input predict language and executive functioning development from ages 3-5 years, and that early language skills explain SES-related differences in executive functioning development. In the fourth paper, the authors find that SES-related household stress is associated with blunted neural responses to inhibition errors in SES-diverse 5-13-year-olds. In conjunction, this symposium sheds new light on how various aspects of children’s early environments interact to influence cognitive development. Further, this work highlights the value of interdisciplinary approaches to studying development in at-risk children.

Sub Unit

• Family Context & Processes

Chairs

• Jennifer E Markfeld, Vanderbilt University

• Rachel R. Romeo, University of Maryland - College Park

Individual Presentations

• Executive Function Skills Account for Bilingual Advantage in Word Learning Among Low-income Preschoolers - Presenting Author: Rong Huang, University of Connecticut; Julie M. Schneider, Louisiana State University

• Associations between Caregiver Stress and Depression and Language in Infants with Autistic and Non-autistic Siblings - Presenting Author: Jennifer E Markfeld, Vanderbilt University; Jacob Feldman; Samantha Bordman; Claire Daly; Pooja Santapuram; Bahar Keceli Kaysili, Vanderbilt University; Tiffany G. Woynaroski

• Different Dimensions of Language Input Support Language and Executive Functioning Development in Preschool - Presenting Author: Rachel R. Romeo, University of Maryland - College Park; Meredith L. Rowe, Harvard University; John Coleman Flournoy, Harvard University; Klaudia Izabela Kulawska, Lehigh University; Amy E Carolus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Grace Kim; Liliana J Lengua, University of Washington; Katie McLaughlin, Harvard University

• Socioeconomic Factors, Stress, and Error Monitoring in Children - Presenting Author: Jordan Strack, Colorado State University; Melissa Hansen, Colorado State University; Kylee Weis; William Gavin; Patricia Davies; Emily Merz, Colorado State University