FriSem

Janet Bang, postdoc with Professor Anne Fernald, Department of Psychology, Stanford University

Abstract:  Language learning trajectories are extremely variable, meaning that some children acquire stronger language skills than others. This variability is seen across typical and atypical populations, as well as in different languages and cultures. But what environmental factors help shape these language skills? Decades of research have established that caregivers who talk more have children with stronger language outcomes. Moreover, children in families from higher-socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds hear more talk than those from lower-SES backgrounds. Based on these findings, interventions for at-risk children have encouraged caregivers to talk more with their children during language-rich contexts such as book reading. However, these interventions have yielded limited impact because book reading often comprises a small portion of children’s daily lives. In fact, we know little about what caregivers are doing throughout their everyday, spontaneous interactions with their children. In this study we investigate caregivers’ densest hour of talk to their 2-year-old children sampled from day-long audio recordings in English-speaking (n = 42) and Spanish-speaking families (n = 43) from diverse SES backgrounds. We found that dense talk occurs across numerous child-centered (e.g., book reading, mealtimes), and adult-centered contexts (e.g., talking to child while cooking). We address the following questions: 1) Does the density of caregiver talk vary across contexts? 2) Is SES related to the density of caregiver talk and does this relation vary by context? 3) Are relations between the density of caregiver talk and children’s 4.5-year outcomes seen in all contexts? We welcome any feedback in this early stage of our work.