Maternal – paternal language input and children's language and cognitive development in low-income families

• In Event: Parent practices and socio-emotional, cognitive, and linguistic outcomes in young Chilean children

Abstract

Introduction. The home environment in which children grow up are important determinants of their development (e.g., Carlson, 2009). Recent studies have suggested that specific qualities of parental language input play an important role in promoting vocabulary and cognitive development (Song et al., 2014) and that fathers tend to have an independent effect on children’s development (e.g., Cabrera et al., 2014).

Our study goal is to provide a detailed examination of features of fathers’ and mothers´ input with toddlers and to examine whether variation in this input relates to children’s vocabulary and cognitive skills.

The specific research questions are: How do low-income fathers/mothers interact verbally with their three-year-old children?; What are the similarities and differences in fathers’/mothers’ talk addressed to their children?; Does the quantity and quality of fathers’/mothers´ language input relate to children’s vocabulary and cognitive skills?

Hypotheses. Given research that has shown that fathers are more challenging conversational partners, we expect that father will use proportionately more questions than mothers. We also expect that quality (e.g., Wh Questions) will be a stronger predictor of children’s vocabulary and cognitive skills than quantity (e.g., total utterances).

Study population. Our sample consisted of 100 low-income Chilean mothers and fathers and their young children (M= 35.78 months).

Methods. Mother/father-child dyads were videotaped in 10 minutes free play sessions. Videotapes were transcribed and reliably coded using the CHAT conventions of the Child Language Data Exchange System (MacWhinney, 2000). Mothers’, fathers’ and children´s quantity and quality of input were obtained using the CLAN program. Children´s cognitive skills were assessed with the Minnesota Executive Functions Scale (Carlson & Schaefer, 2012).

Results. Results for question 1 are displayed in Table 1. Regarding question 2, contrary to our hypothesis significant differences between mothers and fathers were found only between total utterances, types, and tokens. To answer question 3, table 2 show children´s language input and executive functions skills. No significant differences were found between children´s input in the father/mother-child interactions. Correlations between frequency and quality of fathers’ and mothers´ language input and children’s vocabulary and cognitive skills were conducted. Contrary to expected, children´s executive functions were only related with quantity of maternal and paternal input (MLUm r= .16, p= .04; MLUp r=.16, p=.02). Children´s total utterances during the father-child interactions were related to parental MLU (r=.19, p=.007); Wh questions (r=.15, p=.03) and during mother-child interactions to total utterances (r=.19, p = .01); tokens (r=.20, p=.005) and types (r=.25, p<.00). Children MLU during the father-child interactions were related to parental MLU (r=.26, p<.001) and types (r=.15, p=.03). Children MLU during the mother-child interactions were related to parental MLU (r=.23, p<.001) and types (r=.2, p=.005).
Our results show large variability in fathers’/mothers´ and children´s communicative styles, but these tended to be lower than other low income US samples (Leech et al., 2013; Brown’s Stages of Language Development).
We did not replicate previous studies which opened new inquiries: Why didn't our fathers ask more questions than mothers? Why did quantity and not quality relate to children's outcomes?

Authors

• Daniela Aldoney, Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD)
  Presenting Author

• Susana Mendive, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

• Fernanda Prieto, Universidad del Desarrollo (UDD)

• Monica Zegers, University of California - San Francisco