Variability Among Senegalese Mothers in Verbal and Physical Communication with Wolof-Learning Toddlers Predicts Children’s Vocabulary.

• In Event: Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Topic - Language, Communication

Abstract

Many studies of mother-child interaction show that verbal engagement and gaze behaviors are linked to child language outcomes, results based on research in Western societies (Gilkerson et al, 2018). In contrast, ethnographic studies in agrarian non-Western communities show that face-to-face verbal engagement with children occurs infrequently (Cristia et al, 2019). Comparisons of parenting behaviors in different cultural groups have identified two parenting styles, determined by socio-demographic factors: Mothers in subsistence-level agrarian communities use a “proximal” parenting style that relies on physical communication through body contact, while mothers in affluent Western communities use a “distal” parenting style that relies on face-to-face verbal interaction and object stimulation (Keller, 2007). Such studies have been valuable in identifying between-group differences in mother-child interactions typical of Western urban societies as compared to non-Western agrarian societies. But they also assume that distinctive parenting styles are used uniformly by mothers in particular cultural groups; thus they have not examined whether mothers within a community differ in their use of physical and face-to-face communication, and how such variability might relate to children’s language development.

We address these questions by exploring how 60 Wolof-speaking mothers in 18 villages in rural Senegal interact with their toddlers using non-verbal and verbal parenting behaviors associated with physical and face-to-face communication styles. We predicted most mothers would use both kinds of parenting behavior with their 20-30-month-old children. Of particular interest was whether greater use of face-to-face communication by some mothers would be associated with a reduction in their use of physical communication, compared to mothers in the community who used less face-to-face communication. We also predicted that children of mothers who used more face-to-face communication would be more advanced in vocabulary. Mothers and children were recorded in a 15-min play session. Native Wolof-speaking research assistants familiar with the local culture initiated the video-recording then left the room. They later coded a 5-min segment of the recording for behaviors associated with physical communication (body contact, touch, nonverbal object stimulation) and with face-to-face communication (mutual gaze, child-directed speech, turn-taking), also transcribing speech to and from the child.

A K-means clustering analysis yielded two groups of mothers with different patterns of face-to-face and physical communication behaviors. Mothers in the two groups were similar in amounts of physical communication, p=.71, but differed in amounts of face-to-face communication, p<.05. These two patterns revealed variability among mothers within the same cultural community in their use of the two kinds of parenting behaviors. Moreover, a higher frequency of face-to-face communication behaviors was not associated with a reduction in physical communication behaviors. Controlling for child age, children of mothers in the higher face-to-face communication group were more advanced in vocabulary than those in the lower face-to-face group, assessed using the Wolof MacArthur-Bates CDI, F (1,57) = 5.03, p < .05. Results showed that Wolof mothers’ verbal engagement and gaze behaviors with toddlers predicted child vocabulary, consistent with Western research, and also that engaging in face-to-face communication was not at the expense of the physical communication behaviors common in non-Western agrarian societies.

Authors

• Yatma Diop, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author

• Anne Fernald, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Virginia A. Marchman, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ann Weber, University of Nevada, Reno
  Non-Presenting Author