Abstract
Objective. The goals of this study were (1) to examine the extent of variation in amount and lexical diversity of maternal talk to young children within a sample of low-income families, (2) to determine the patterns of change over time in maternal talk during the early childhood years, and (3) to consider specific predictors of variation in maternal communicative input. Design. Low-income mother - child dyads (n = 108) were videotaped at child ages 14, 24, and 36 months during semistructured play in the home. Videotapes were transcribed and analyzed using the conventions of the Child Language Data Exchange System to determine amount (word tokens) and lexical diversity (word types) of maternal talk to children. Background information collected from mothers at study entry served as predictors of variation in communicative input. Individual growth modeling methods were used to analyze data. Results. Mothers varied greatly in the number of tokens and types produced during interaction. Mothers were found to increase in their total amount of talk and diversity of vocabulary as children aged. In addition to child age, maternal education, language and literacy skills, depression, and age helped explain variation in level of maternal talk, but none of the predictors explained variation in growth. Different combinations of predictors explained variation in tokens versus types. Conclusions. Findings highlight the importance of studying specific predictors of parental talk to children, as even in low-income samples large variation in communicative input is evident.
Highlights
Variability in maternal communicative input to infants and toddlers is of considerable theoretical and applied interest, given its demonstrated value in predicting children’s rates of development and later skill levels
We make a modest effort to address this gap in the literature by analyzing longitudinal data from 108 low-income families with children aged 14 to 36 months. Recent work with this sample has shown that diversity of maternal lexical input, rather than maternal talkativeness, predicted growth in children’s vocabulary production in toddlerhood (Pan, Rowe, Singer, & Snow, in press), leading us to question whether different maternal characteristics might predict variation across mothers in these two features of input
The specific research questions addressed in this study were: (1) How much variability is there in amount and lexical diversity of maternal talk directed to children within this sample of low-income families? (2) What are the patterns of change over time in maternal verbal input directed to children between 14 and 36 months? and (3) Do maternal characteristics such as education, language and literacy skills, and depression account for variation in level and/or growth of maternal lexical diversity and amount of talk addressed to children, controlling for key child and family background variables?
Summary
The goals of this study were (1) to examine the extent of variation in amount and lexical diversity of maternal talk to young children within a sample of low-income families, (2) to determine the patterns of change over time in maternal talk during the early childhood years, and (3) to consider specific predictors of variation in maternal communicative input. Videotapes were transcribed and analyzed using the conventions of the Child Language Data Exchange System to determine amount (word tokens) and lexical diversity (word types) of maternal talk to children. Background information collected from mothers at study entry served as predictors of variation in communicative input. Findings highlight the importance of studying specific predictors of parental talk to children, as even in low-income samples large variation in communicative input is evident
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