Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T23:26:22.420Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Child-directed speech: relation to socioeconomic status, knowledge of child development and child vocabulary skill*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2008

MEREDITH L. ROWE
MEREDITH L. ROWE*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
*
Address for correspondence: Meredith L. Rowe, Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, 5848 S. University Ave, Chicago, IL 60637. e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study sought to determine why American parents from different socioeconomic backgrounds communicate in different ways with their children. Forty-seven parent–child dyads were videotaped engaging in naturalistic interactions in the home for ninety minutes at child age 2 ; 6. Transcripts of these interactions provided measures of child-directed speech. Children's vocabulary comprehension skills were measured using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test at 2 ; 6 and one year later at 3 ; 6. Results indicate that: (1) child-directed speech with toddlers aged 2 ; 6 predicts child vocabulary skill one year later, controlling for earlier toddler vocabulary skill; (2) child-directed speech relates to socioeconomic status as measured by income and education; and (3) the relation between socioeconomic status and child-directed speech is mediated by parental knowledge of child development. Potential mechanisms through which parental knowledge influences communicative behavior are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , February 2008 , pp. 185 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arriaga, R. J., Fenson, L., Cronan, T. & Pethick, S. J. (1998). Scores on the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory of children from low- and middle-income families. Applied Psycholinguistics 19, 209–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baron, R. M. & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of personality and social psychology 51 (6), 1173–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benasich, A. A. & Brooks-Gunn, J. (1996). Maternal attitudes and knowledge of child-rearing: Associations with family and child outcomes. Child Development 67, 1186–205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Borduin, C. M. & Henggeler, S. W. (1981). Social class, experimental setting, and task characteristics as determinants of mother-child interaction. Developmental Psychology 17, 209–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bornstein, M. H., Haynes, M. O. & Painter, K. M. (1998). Sources of child vocabulary competence: A multivariate model. Journal of Child Language 25, 367–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke-Stewart, K. A. (1978). Popular primers for parents. American Psychologist 33, 359–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donahue, M. L., Pearl, R. & Herzog, A. (1997). Mothers' referential communication with preschoolers: Effects of children's syntax and mothers' beliefs. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 18, 133–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunn, L. M. & Dunn, L. M. (1997). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, 3rd ed.Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Farran, D. C. & Haskins, R. (1980). Reciprocal influence in the social interaction of mothers and three-year-old children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Child Development 51, 780–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodnow, J. J. (2002). Parents' knowledge and expectations: Using what we know. In Bornstein, M. H. (ed.), Handbook of parenting, 2nd ed., Vol. 3, 439–60. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Goodnow, J. J. & Collins, W. A. (1990). Development according to parents: The nature, sources, and consequences of parents' ideas. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Harkness, S. & Super, C. M. (eds) (1996). Parent's cultural belief systems: Their origins, expressions, and consequences. New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Hart, B. & Risley, T. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Baltimore: Brookes.Google Scholar
Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with words: Language, life and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoff, E. (2003 a). The specificity of environmental influence: Socioeconomic status affects early vocabulary development via maternal speech. Child Development 74, 1368–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoff, E. (2003 b). Causes and consequences of SES-related differences in parent-to-child speech. In Bornstein, M. H. (ed.), Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child development, 147–60. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Hoff, E., Laursen, B. & Tardif, T. (2002). Socioeconomic status and parenting. In Bornstein, M. H. (ed.), Handbook of parenting, 2nd ed., 231–52. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Hoff, E. & Naigles, L. (2002). How children use input in acquiring a lexicon. Child Development 73, 418–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoff-Ginsberg, E. (1991). Mother-child conversation in different social classes and communicative settings. Child Development 62, 782–96.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huttenlocher, J., Haight, W., Bryk, A., Seltzer, M. & Lyons, T. (1991). Early vocabulary growth: relation to language input and gender. Developmental Psychology 27, 236–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huttenlocher, J., Vasilyeva, M., Waterfall, H. R., Vevea, J. L. & Hedges, L. V. (in press). The varieties of speech to young children. Developmental Psychology.Google Scholar
Johnston, J. B. & Wong, M.-Y. A. (2002). Cultural differences in beliefs and practices concerning talk to children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 45, 916–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lawrence, V. & Shipley, E. F. (1996). Parental speech to middle and working class children from two racial groups in three settings. Applied Psycholinguistics 17, 233–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LeVine, R. A. (2004). Challenging expert knowledge: Findings from an African study of infant care and development. In Gielen, U. P. & Roopnarine, J. L. (eds), Childhood and adolescence: Cross-cultural perspectives and applications, 149–65. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Luster, T. & Okagaki, L. (1993). Multiple influences on parenting: Ecological and life-course perspectives. In Okagaki, L. (ed.), Parenting: An ecological perspective, 227–50. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
MacPhee, D. (2002; first published 1981). Knowledge of Infant Development Inventory: Manual. Colorado: Colorado State University.Google Scholar
Malvern, D., Richards, B. J., Chipere, N. & Duran, P. (2004). Lexical diversity and language development: Quantification and assessment. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGillicuddy-DeLisi, A. V. & Sigel, I. E. (1995). Parental beliefs. In Bornstein, M. H. (ed.), Handbook of parenting, Vol. 3, 333–58. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Miller, S. A. (1988). Parents' beliefs about children's cognitive development. Child Development 59, 259–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, S. A. & Davis, T. L. (1992). Beliefs about children: A comparative study of mothers, teachers, peers and self. Child Development 63, 1251–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ninio, A. (1980). Picture-book reading in mother-infant dyads belonging to two subgroups in Israel. Child Development 51, 587–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ochs, E. & Schieffelin, B. B. (1984). Language acquisition and socializations: Three developmental stories and their implications. In Shweder, R. A. & LeVine, R. A. (eds), Culture theory: Essays on mind, self and emotion. 276–320. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Pan, B. A., Rowe, M. L., Singer, J. D. & Snow, C. E. (2005). Maternal correlates of growth in toddler vocabulary production in low-income families. Child Development 76, 763–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Richman, A. L., Miller, P. M. & LeVine, R. A. (1992). Cultural and educational variations in maternal responsiveness. Developmental Psychology 28, 614–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowe, M. L. (2000). Pointing and talk by low-income mothers and their 14-month-old children. First Language 20, 305–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowe, M. L., Pan, B. A. & Ayoub, C. (2005). Predictors of variation in maternal talk to children: A longitudinal study of low-income families. Parenting: Science and Practice 5, 285–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sigel, I. E. & McGillicuddy-De Lisi, A. V. (2002). Parent beliefs are cognitions: The dynamic belief systems model. In Bornstein, M. H. (ed.), Handbook of parenting. 2nd ed., Vol. 3, 485–508. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Sigel, I. E. (1985). Parental belief systems: The psychological consequences for children. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Snow, C. E. (1977). The development of conversation between mothers and babies. Journal of Child Language 4, 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wechsler, D. (1981). Manual for Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Revisited. San Antonio, TX: The Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar