Parental Input Research Articles

Quantity and Quality of Parental Linguistic Input to Young Children with Cochlear Implants: A Longitudinal Study

Objectives: This study aims to investigate longitudinal changes in the quantity and quality of the parental linguistic input of children with cochlear implants (CIs) and children with typical hearing (TH) and find the significant parental linguistic variables that might positively be related to children’s language development in the CI group. Methods: Participants were 33 parent-child dyads, including 16 children with CIs and 17 with TH at the initial visit. They participated in a 20-minute free-play task at three-time points (initial, 6-month, and 12-month visits). Results: There were no significant differences between the CI and TH groups in the total number of utterances (NTU) and the total number of words (NTW). However, the two groups significantly differed in the different number of words (NDW) and higher-level facilitative language techniques (FLTs). In addition, the CI group produced more utterances than TH parents at the initial visit. However, there were no significant differences in the NTU between CI and TH groups at 6- and 12-month visits. Furthermore, both groups used fewer NDW and mental state words at the initial visit than at the 12-month visit. Nevertheless, CI and TH groups used fewer higher-level FLTs at the initial visit than at the 6- and 12-month visits. Lastly, qualitative parental linguistic input is a critical factor, continuously affecting language development in children with CIs. Conclusion: These findings suggest that early intervention programs should be designed to enable parents to use more qualitative linguistic features in daily routines to build their child’s language skills.

The Long-Term Effects of Unilateral Divorce Laws on the Noncognitive Skill of Conscientiousness

Abstract This paper provides the first causal evidence of the effect of a change in divorce laws on noncognitive skills in adulthood. We exploit state-cohort variation in the adoption of unilateral divorce laws in the U.S. to assess whether children exposed to this law have different noncognitive skills in adulthood compared to those never exposed or exposed as adults. Using data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the U.S. (MIDUS) and employing the staggered difference-in-differences identification strategy developed by Callaway and Sant’Anna, we show that divorce reform had a detrimental long-term effect on the conscientiousness of those who were exposed as children whether their parents divorced or not. Changes in parental inputs can explain most of the effect, which is greatest for men whose parents divorced.

Parenting Practices Dalam Perkembangan Psikoseksual Pada Anak

Psychosexual development in children is influenced by the parenting practices parents use at each stage of psychosexual development. When parenting practices are used inappropriately, it will create obstacles to their psychosexual development. This study aims to find out how parenting practices are used in psychosexual development in children. The research method used is qualitative with a case study approach. Data collection techniques used are interviews and observation. Verification of the research data used is the triangulation technique. This research involved two respondents aged seven and nine years and two significant others, namely the respondent's mother and cousin. The results of the research are that there are obstacles in the respondent's psychosexual development, the parenting patterns used by the respondent's mother are parenting practices, punitive discipline, incoherence, warmth and positive involvement, and spanking. The sexual behavior carried out is imitated by the mother and family members as well as the impact of social media. The implication of this research is as input for parents to be able to avoid parenting patterns that hinder the process of psychosexual development which causes children to have sexual behavior.

Parental use of causal language for preterm and full-term children: A longitudinal study.

Parents are often a good source of information, introducing children to how the world around them is described and explained in terms of cause-and-effect relations. Parents also vary in their speech, and these variations can predict children's later language skills. Being born preterm might be related to such parent-child interactions. The present longitudinal study investigated parental causal language use in Turkish, a language with particular causative morphology, across three time points when preterm and full-term children were 14-, 20-, and 26-months-old. In general, although preterm children heard fewer words overall, there were no differences between preterm and full-term groups in terms of the proportion of causal language input. Parental causal language input increased from 20 to 26 months, while the amount of overall verbal input remained the same. These findings suggest that neonatal status can influence the amount of overall parental talk, but not parental use of causal language.

The eXpectations of Parents regarding Anesthesiology Study (XPAS) from a parental perspective: a two-phase observational cross-sectional cohort study.

Uncertainty concerning anesthetic procedures and risks in children requiring anesthesia may cause concerns in parents and caregivers. To explore parental expectations and experiences regarding their child's anesthesia using questionnaires designed with parental input. This observational cross-sectional cohort study included parents (including caregivers) of children undergoing anesthesia in a tertiary pediatric referral university hospital. The study consisted of two phases. In Phase 1, we developed three questionnaires with parental involvement through a focus group discussion and individual interviews. The questionnaires focused on parental satisfaction, knowledge, concerns, and need for preparation regarding their child's anesthesia. In Phase 2, independent samples of parents completed the questionnaires at three time points: before the preanesthesia assessment (T1), 2 days after the preanesthesia assessment (T2), and 4 days after the anesthetic procedure (T3). In Phase 1, 22 parents were involved in the development of the questionnaires. The three questionnaires contained 43 questions in total, of which 10 had been proposed by parents. In Phase 2, 78% (474 out of 934) parents participated at T1, 36% (610 out of 1705), at T2 and 34% (546 out of 1622) at T3. Parental satisfaction scores were rated on a visual analogue scale for the preanesthesia assessment with a median of 87/100, and with a median of 90/100 for the anesthetic procedure (0: not satisfied and 100: satisfied). Parental concerns were rated with a median of 50/100 (0: no concerns and 100: extremely concerned). Parental answers from the questionnaire at T2 revealed significant knowledge deficits, with only 73% reporting that the anesthesiologist was a physician. Parents preferred to receive more information about the procedure, especially regarding the intended effects and side effects of anesthesia. Overall, parental satisfaction scores regarding the pediatric anesthesiology procedure were high, with a minority expressing concerns. Parents indicated a preference for their child's anesthesiologist to visit them both before and after the anesthetic procedure. Parental expectations regarding anesthesia did not completely correspond with the information provided; more information from the clinician about the intended effects and side effects of anesthesia was desired.

Eight Senses Goal Setting Assistant: A Pilot Study

Abstract Date Presented 04/22/2023 In the client-centered care philosophy, the OT process incorporates parent input regarding their child’s care. Through a mixed-methods analysis, this capstone project examined the potential of a novel web-based tool, the Eight Senses Goal-Setting Assistant (ESGSA), to assist parents in OT goal setting for their children with sensory issues. Primary Author and Speaker: Analyn Joens

A-08 Understanding the relationship between knowledge, beliefs, actions and confidence surrounding concussions among youth hockey coaches

Abstract Purpose To investigate the effectiveness of mandatory concussion education among youth hockey coaches and to understand if increased knowledge correlates with confidence. Identification of facilitators and barriers to coaches’ beliefs and actions were also assessed. Methods Prospective, cross-sectional descriptive pilot study using an electronic survey via REDCap sent to youth coaches within the Minnesota Hockey organization. Quantitative questions were used to investigate knowledge and attitudes, while qualitative questions explored the facilitators and barriers to concussion management in youth hockey. Results 98.8% of the 177 participants (M=150; F=22, NB=5), aged 18–65+ years completed the mandatory concussion training, with majority completing it in the last year (79%). 95% endorsed concussion education as beneficial with only 8 coaches reporting it was not helpful and 10 coaches requesting more educational materials. Over half of the participants (96; 54%) denied legislation impacting their attitude toward concussion. Confidence in concussion knowledge (3.07±1.09; 77%) and attitudes towards concussions (7.62±1.63; 85%) were positive. 39 (26%) coaches considered athlete and parent input most valuable for return to play. This may be related 72% of participants who reported no trained medical staff were present at games or practices. Concerningly, 20% of coaches may not encourage an athlete with loss of consciousness to seek emergent care. Conclusions Current mandatory concussion education produces increased knowledge, confidence, and appropriate action among majority of youth coaches. Coach reliance on athlete and parent report for clearance to play increases with no medical staff present for practices and games, which could have negative consequences.

Early Years Multi‐grade Classes and Pupil Attainment*

AbstractWe study the effect of exposure to older, more experienced, classroom peers resulting from the widespread use of multi‐grade classes in Scottish primary schools. For identification, we exploit that a class‐planning algorithm quasi‐randomly assigns groups of pupils to multi‐grade classes. We find that school‐starters benefit from exposure to second‐graders in measures of numeracy and literacy. We do not find any evidence that these gains are driven by smaller class sizes or more parental input. While short‐lived, these benefits accrue independent of socioeconomic background, to boys and girls alike, and our results provide no evidence that they come at the expense of older peers from the preceding cohort.

The “Breastmilk Ecology: Genesis of Infant Nutrition (BEGIN)” Project – executive summary

The public health community has come to appreciate that a deeper understanding of the biology of human milk is essential to address ongoing and emerging questions about infant feeding practices. The critical pieces of that understanding are that 1) human milk is a complex biological system, a matrix of many interacting parts that is more than the sum of those parts, and 2) human milk production needs to be studied as an ecology that consists of inputs from the lactating parent, their breastfed baby, and their respective environments. The “Breastmilk Ecology: Genesis of Infant Nutrition (BEGIN)” Project was designed to examine this ecology as well as its functional implications for both the parent and infant and to explore ways in which this emerging knowledge can be expanded via a targeted research agenda and translated to support the community’s efforts to ensure safe, efficacious, and context-specific infant feeding practices in the United States and globally. The five working groups of the BEGIN Project addressed the following themes: 1) parental inputs to human milk production and composition; 2) the components of human milk and the interactions of those components within this complex biological system; 3) infant inputs to the matrix, emphasizing the bidirectional relationships associated with the breastfeeding dyad; 4) the application of existing and new technologies and methodologies to study human milk as a complex biological system; and 5) approaches to translation and implementation of new knowledge to support safe and efficacious infant feeding practices.

Parent American Sign Language skills correlate with child–but not toddler–ASL vocabulary size

ABSTRACT Most deaf children have hearing parents who do not know a sign language at birth and are at risk of limited language input during early childhood. Studying these children as they learn a sign language has revealed that timing of first-language exposure critically shapes language outcomes. But the input deaf children receive in their first language is not only delayed, it is much more variable than most first language learners, as many learn their first language from parents who are themselves new sign language learners. Much of the research on deaf children learning a sign language has considered the role of parent input using broad strokes, categorizing hearing parents as non-native, poor signers, and deaf parents as native, strong signers. In this study, we deconstruct these categories and examine how variation in sign language skills among hearing parents might affect children’s vocabulary acquisition. This study included 44 deaf children between 8- and 60-months-old who were learning American Sign Language (ASL) and had hearing parents who were also learning ASL. We observed an interactive effect of parent ASL proficiency and age, such that parent ASL proficiency was a significant predictor of child ASL vocabulary size, but not among the infants and toddlers. The proficiency of language models can affect acquisition above and beyond age of acquisition, particularly as children grow. At the same time, the most skilled parents in this sample were not as fluent as “native” deaf signers, and yet their children reliably had age-expected ASL vocabularies. Data and reproducible analyses are available at https://osf.io/9ya6h/.

What advice do parents give their children about plea bargains? Understanding the role of parent race, attorney race, and attorney recommendations

This study examined parent acquiescence to attorney recommendations in plea bargain decisions, and the effect of racial similarity between an attorney and their juvenile client’s parent. Scholarship indicates that youth are vulnerable to the influence of authority figures in plea-bargaining, leading to a reliance on parental and attorney input for plea decisions. Parents read a vignette with attorney’s race manipulated, imagining they are participating in the plea-bargaining process and the attorney is giving them recommendations regarding how to plea. Results show White parents were more likely to take a plea and had more trust in the attorneys. Black attorneys were found to be most trustworthy, especially for White parents. Parent race impacted plea advice acquiescence more than attorney/parent racial similarity.

How family structure influences middle-school students’ involvement in physical exercise and their academic achievement in China

Increasing research attention is being paid to the factors influencing the comprehensive and healthy development of adolescents. However, few studies have specifically considered cultural contexts, including that of China. Based on public database—The China Education Panel Survey (CEPS) data, this paper takes fixed-effect model to examine the relationship between family structure and physical exercise/academic achievement of middle-school students, plus their intermediary mechanisms. The results were as follows: (1) Middle-school students in intact families displayed higher levels of physical exercise and academic achievement than those in families with one or both parents absent; (2) Family structure influenced middle-school students’ development through the two mechanisms of family socioeconomic status and parental input; and (3) Fathers and mothers fulfill different roles in middle-school students’ development: fathers contribute more to their involvement in physical exercise; mothers contribute more to their academic achievement. The results carry theoretical and practical implications for the development of adolescents, both in China and elsewhere.

Parent coaching from 6 to 18 months improves child language outcomes through 30 months of age.

Interventions focused on the home language environment have been shown to improve a number of child language outcomes in the first years of life. However, data on the longer-term effects of the intervention are still somewhat limited. The current study examines child vocabulary and complex speech outcomes (N=59) during the year following completion of a parent-coaching intervention, which was previously found to increase the quantity of parent-child conversational turns and to improve child language outcomes through 18 months of age. Measures of parental language input, child speech output, and parent-child conversational turn-taking were manually coded from naturalistic home recordings (Language Environment Analysis System, LENA) at regular 4-month intervals when children were 6- to 24-months old. Child language skills were assessed using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) at four time-points following the final intervention session (at 18, 24, 27, and 30 months). Vocabulary size and growth from 18 to 30 months was greater in the intervention group, even after accounting for differences in child language ability during the intervention period. The intervention group also scored higher on measures of speech length and grammatical complexity, and these effects were mediated by 18-month vocabulary. Intervention was associated with increased parent-child conversational turn-taking in home recordings at 14 months, and mediation analysis suggested that 14-month conversational turn-taking accounted for intervention-related differences in subsequent vocabulary. Together, the results suggest enduring, positive effects of parental language intervention and underscore the importance of interactive, conversational language experience during the first 2 years of life. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Parent coaching was provided as part of a home language intervention when children were 6-18 months of age. Naturalistic home language recordings showed increased parent-child conversational turn-taking in the intervention group at 14 months of age. Measures of productive vocabulary and complex speech indicated more advanced expressive language skills in the intervention group through 30 months of age, a full year after the final intervention session. Conversational turn-taking at 14 months predicted subsequent child vocabulary and accounted for differences in vocabulary size across the intervention and control groups.

Will the last be the first? School closures and educational outcomes

Governments have implemented school closures and online learning as one of the main tools to reduce the spread of Covid-19. Despite the potential benefits in terms of containment of virus diffusion, the educational costs of these policies may be dramatic. This work identifies these costs, expressed as decrease in test scores, for the whole universe of Italian students attending the 5th, 8th and 13th grade of the school cycle during the 2021/22 school year. The analysis is based on a difference-in-difference model in relative time, where the control group is the closest generation before the Covid-19 pandemic. Results suggest a national average loss between 1.8–4.0% in Mathematics and Italian test scores. After collecting the precise number of school closure days for the universe of students in Sicily, this work also estimates that the average days of closure decrease the test score by 2.4%. In this context, parents appear to have a partial compensatory effect, but only when holding higher levels of education and when their children are attending low and middle schools. This is likely explained by the lower relevance of parental inputs and higher reliance on other inputs, such as peers, for the higher grades. Finally, the effects are also heterogeneous across class size, parents’ country of birth and job conditions, pointing towards potential growing inequalities driven by the lack of frontal teaching.

Mothers’ lexical input in their conversations with children with autism spectrum disorders

Research on the structure and content of parental input to children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is an important, yet largely neglected area of study. In particular, it is not clear which input features are similar or different between children with ASD and typically developing (TD) children. We analysed transcripts of spontaneous conversations between six ASD children and their mothers, who were followed over a period of between 12 and 26 months, for common features in the composition and function of the shared lexical items in the mothers’ speech to their children with ASD. Results first indicated the small core lexicon shared by all the mothers (8.27%) made up a total of 78.1% of the mothers’ actual speech, similar to what’s been found in maternal speech to TD 2-year-old children. Results also showed that, in contrast to maternal speech to TD children, the core lexicon of the mothers of ASD children was composed of slightly more content words (particularly verbs) than function words (68.48% versus 31.52%). These results suggest that mothers restrict their choice of lexical items to a small pool of highly frequent words when conversing with their children, ASD as well as TD. The use of more content words in maternal speech to children with ASD may reflect these mothers’ explicit efforts to orient and direct their ASD children’s attention to an ongoing activity.

Language Experience during Infancy Predicts White Matter Myelination at Age 2 Years.

Parental input is considered a key predictor of language achievement during the first years of life, yet relatively few studies have assessed the effects of parental language input and parent-infant interactions on early brain development. We examined the relationship between measures of parent and child language, obtained from naturalistic home recordings at child ages 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months, and estimates of white matter myelination, derived from quantitative MRI at age 2 years (mean = 26.30 months, SD = 1.62, N = 22). Analysis of the white matter focused on dorsal pathways associated with expressive language development and long-term language ability, namely, the left arcuate fasciculus (AF) and superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF). Frequency of parent-infant conversational turns (CT) uniquely predicted myelin density estimates in both the AF and SLF. Moreover, the effect of CT remained significant while controlling for total adult speech and child speech-related utterances, suggesting a specific role for interactive language experience, rather than simply speech exposure or production. An exploratory analysis of 18 additional tracts, including the right AF and SLF, indicated a high degree of anatomic specificity. Longitudinal analyses of parent and child language variables indicated an effect of CT as early as 6 months of age, as well as an ongoing effect over infancy. Together, these results link parent-infant conversational turns to white matter myelination at age 2 years, and suggest that early, interactive experiences with language uniquely contribute to the development of white matter associated with long-term language ability.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Children's earliest experiences with language are thought to have profound and lasting developmental effects. Recent studies suggest that intervention can increase the quality of parental language input and improve children's learning outcomes. However, important questions remain about the optimal timing of intervention, and the relationship between specific aspects of language experience and brain development. We report that parent-infant turn-taking during home language interactions correlates with myelination of language related white matter pathways through age 2 years. Effects were independent of total speech exposure and infant vocalizations and evident starting at 6 months of age, suggesting that structured language interactions throughout infancy may uniquely support the ongoing development of brain systems critical to long-term language ability.

Parental Human Capital Investment Responses to Children’s Disabilities

This paper investigates whether parental decisions to invest in education of their disabled children are driven by equality or efficiency. Even if parents are inequality averse, they may still choose to invest more in nondisabled children than in disabled children if there are additional costs of parental inputs associated with disability. I show that variation in family size and children’s disabilities can be used to infer whether parents are averse to inequality, exploiting the fact that parents of single children cannot possibly exhibit inequality aversion. Using Mexican cross-sectional data, I show that equality is important for parental investments in education.

The Predictive Role of Quantity and Quality Language-Exposure Measures for L1 and L2 Vocabulary Production among Immigrant Preschoolers in Italy.

In this study, we investigated the lexical ability in L1 and L2 of 60 immigrant children who were 37 to 62 months old and exposed to minority languages (L1) and Italian (L2). Using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories, we measured children's vocabulary production in L1 and L2. From interviews, we collected data on quantitative language exposure (parental input, child output, length of exposure to L2 at preschool, and parental oral fluency) and qualitative home-language exposure (HLE) practices (active, play, and passive) in L1 and L2. We conducted stepwise regression analyses to explore which factors predicted children's vocabulary production in L1 and L2. The child's chronological age and parental education were not predictors of vocabulary production. L2 parental input, L1 child output, and L1 HLE-active practices explained 42% of the variance in children's L1 vocabulary production. L2 child output and L2 HLE-active practices explained 47% of the variance in children's L2 vocabulary production, whereas length of L2 exposure in preschool was a predictor only when we included quantitative language-exposure factors in the model. The effects of the quantity and quality of language exposure on lexical ability among preschool immigrant children are discussed.

EDUCATIONAL MODEL FOR ULAMA CADRES BASED ON "MULAZAMAH" METHOD

This research examines the education model of ulama cadres that focuses on the concept of mulazamah at Salman Al-Farisi Karangpandan Islamic Boarding School, Karanganyar, Central Java. The research objectives include analyzing the education model of cadres ulama, the application of the mulazamah model in ulama regeneration education, and the standardization of the competence of cadres ulama in the Islamic boarding school. The methodology used is the constructivism paradigm with a qualitative research approach, involving the head of the boarding school, several ustadz, and marhalah 1 and 2 students as research subjects. The main findings indicate that the competencies of graduates of Salman Al-Farisi Islamic Boarding School include mastery of the Arabic language, basic Islamic sciences, memorization of the Qur'an, memorization of hadith, and Indonesian and Javanese languages. The education model in this Islamic boarding school applies a mulazamah system that emphasizes the foundation of the Qur'an and adab, is gradual (tadarruj) and focused by involving a strict selection of new students. In addition, book learning with the mulazamah method is also effective in forming the basic competencies of cadres ulama. Evaluation is carried out through three types of learning outcomes evaluation, namely written, oral, and practical evaluations. The contribution of this research lies in the findings of an Islamic religious education model that has high educational meaning in producing cadres of scholars, with a positive impact on the Islamic education system. The implications of this research include recommendations for increasing the allocation of santri learning, training santri in guiding the ummah, and recruiting local ustadz to reduce education costs. The practical benefits of this study include the development of Islamic education models in Islamic boarding schools in general, providing input for Islamic boarding school leaders, ustadz, students, parents, and guardians of students, as well as being a reference for future in understanding the problem of clerical regeneration.

NeoConnect: The Design, Implementation, and Impact of a Virtual Family-Centered NICU Program.

Familial involvement in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) reduces parental stress and strengthens parental-infant bonding. However, parents often face barriers to in-person visitation. The coronavirus disease-2019 COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated limitations to parental bedside presence. To design, implement, and evaluate a technology-based program to connect NICU babies with their families during the COVID-19 pandemic. We created NeoConnect at our level IV NICU, which included parental audio recordings and video chats between parents and their babies. Parental and NICU staff input on NeoConnect was gathered via preimplementation surveys. Inaugural families and staff members completed a postparticipation survey. Prior to implementation, all parents who were surveyed (n = 24) wished they could be more involved in their baby's care. In the first 3 months of NeoConnect, 48 families participated in the audio recording project and 14 families participated in the video chat initiative. Following implementation, 85% of surveyed staff (28/33) reported that the patients became calmer when listening to their parents' recorded voice and 100% of surveyed parents (6/6) reported that video chats reduced their stress level. Harnessing technology as a tool to increase parental involvement in the NICU is feasible and beneficial for NICU patients and their families.