Abstract
The language environment is important for the development of early communication and language. In the current study, we describe the natural home language environment of 9-month-old infants in Sweden and its concurrent association with language development. Eighty-eight families took part in the study. The home language environment was measured using the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system, and language development was assessed using Swedish Early Communicative Development Inventory (SECDI), a parent questionnaire. LENA measures showed dramatic variation between individuals but were comparable to and showed overlapping variance with previous studies conducted in English-speaking households. Nonetheless, there were significantly more infant vocalizations and conversational turns in the present study than in one previous study. Adult word count correlated significantly and positively with infants’ Use of gestures and the subscale of that section Communicative gestures. These together with another four non-significant associations formed a consistent overall pattern that suggested a link between infants’ language environment and language development. Although the direction of causality cannot be determined from the current data, future studies should examine children longitudinally to assess the directionality or the bidirectionality of the reported associations between infant’s language environment and language development.
Highlights
The language environment of young children varies considerably, both quantitatively and qualitatively (e.g., Hart and Risley, 1995)
The 88 9-month-old infants enrolled in the current study heard an average of 15,152 adult word count (AWC) during the 12 h Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) recording in a natural home setting
The average recorded child vocalization count (CVC) was 1,267, and the infant with highest number of vocalizations (2,722) showed almost 10 times more vocalizations compared to the infant that had the lowest number of vocalizations (285)
Summary
The language environment of young children (i.e., all language surrounding the child) varies considerably, both quantitatively and qualitatively (e.g., Hart and Risley, 1995). The language environment is important for the development of early communication and language. In recent years, it has changed rapidly with increased access to, and use of, digital media. The purpose of the current study was to measure using LENA the natural home language environment of 9-month-old infants in Sweden and to investigate the concurrent association with language development for the first time in this age group. This was the first report of 9-month-olds using LENA to be conducted in Sweden
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