The influence of siblings on toddlers’ mean length of utterance

Abstract

Linguistic complexity is an indicator of language development in young children. Complexity of a child’s linguistic productions have been shown to increase with development, but may be affected by factors such as disability or environmental variables. Here, we look into the role of family composition as a possible influence on a child’s developing ability to use increasingly complex language. In particular, we ask if a toddler’s mean length of utterance (MLU) is affected by the presence of siblings in the family and whether the sex of the child may play a role. MLU values were extracted from the public HomeBank database [http://homebank.talkbank.org] of transcribed natural child speech for both the target toddler and for siblings present in the recordings. Results indicate a main effect of increased MLU in children without siblings, but interaction effects suggest that differences may be driven by the boys without siblings alone. There was no correlation between the MLU of the target child and the MLU of ...