LANGUAGE IS LEARNT THROUGH INTERACTION WITH CAREGIVERS: WHILE THE QUANTITY OF INFANTS’ TALK EXPERIENCE APPEARS TO CONSTITUTE A FACILITATIVE ASPECT OF THEIR LANGUAGE ENVIRONMENT, THE QUALITY OF INTERACTION WITH CAREGIVERS, ON A FACE-TO-FACE BASIS IS ALSO SIGNIFICANT

Parental responsiveness is considered to influence the child’s language development positively. Optimal language development occurs within interactions that are stimulating and supportive, in which young children experience predictable and developmentally appropriate responses from adults.

A review of 103 studies found that language delivered in the context of an adult–child interaction characterised by adult responsiveness and positive regard helps to scaffold a child’s learning and encourage verbal behaviours. The studies found that engaging in responsive interactions with caregivers:

(i) Predicts the timing of language milestones, including first words, two-word combinations, and use of past tense (ii) May account for up to 64% of variance in vocabulary outcomes in toddlers (iii) Results in greater receptive and expressive vocabulary, grammatical complexity, syntax, phonemic awareness, and school readiness (iv) Is more predictive of language acquisition than quantity of caregiver speech.

Reasearchers also showed how maternal responsiveness with typically developing children at 9 to 13 months was related to measures of expressive language milestones at 21 months, for example, the onset of first words, 50 expressive words and word combinations.

Toddlers who have frequent social interactions with adults are more likely to make early language sounds, matching their language to what they hear.

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4. Lawhon, T., & Cobb, J. B. (2002). Routines that build emergent literacy skills in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Early Childhood Education Journal, 30(2), 113-118.

Parents who interact with infants and toddlers on a face-to-face basis, through eye contact and talking about what they are seeing and experiencing can help them build attention, language and learning skills.

Neural studies in (young) infants have found that parents and infants maintaining eye contact and sharing about things together play a crucial role in young infants’ speech processing, specifically enhancing their attention to relevant social information about the speaker and the objects the speaker is referring to.

The quantity and quality of adult language input has an impact on children’s oral language development and subsequent literacy skills.

The quantity and quality of adult language input has an impact on children’s oral language development and subsequent literacy skills

In terms of quantity, a study showed that every additional 1000 words spoken to a child was associated with a 0.44-point increase on the Preschool Language Scale, 4th edition, a child language assessment tool. This link between the number of words spoken and a child’s eventual vocabulary was highlighted in a study of American infants.

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8. Hart, B., & Risley, T. R. (1995) Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children. Baltimore, MD: Brookes; 1995.

The authors conducted this study to look for the cause of the disparity in linguistic/academic progress among children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. For 2.5 years, 7-month-old children in 42 families were observed for one hour per week until the child turned 3 years old. Everything said to the baby, all talk the baby overheard and everything the baby did or said during an hour of daily life was recorded and analysed. This study found that the average welfare child had half as much experience per hour (616 words per hour) as the average working-class child (1,251 words per hour), and less than a third as much experience as the average professional class child (2,153 per hour).

Parent talkativeness or “sociableness” to their infants accounted for a correlation between Social Economic Status (SES) and the children’s later linguistic/academic development. This study also demonstrated the necessity of comparing children to their speech community, as typical linguistic development and exposure varies depending on socioeconomic status as well as cultural perceptions and ideas about typical communication and language development in young children. There are critics to this study who have brought up issues with the small sample size and the recording methodology, but the study highlighted the importance of the language environment in infancy and its impact on future language development.

Words can be delivered in a variety of different ways in multiple contexts. Parents and caregivers can narrate their daily activities, point out various objects in their environment, ask their babies questions about how they are feeling, and share books, nursery rhymes, and songs. All these activities are ways in which parents or caregivers increase the quantity of words in their children’s early language environment and thus enrich their learning potential.

In addition to quantity of words, the quality of interaction between parent and child also impacts language development. Researchers

found five parenting behaviours that predicted future achievement in children, namely:

1. Using rich vocabulary when speaking with children
2. Using words to respond to children’s behaviour
3. Using verbal guidance to encourage development
4. Putting emphasis on language for communicating
5. Being responsive to a toddler’s emerging attempts to communicate

Subsequent research has also highlighted the importance of communication between adults and toddlers and the need for adult responses to focus on their interests, initiations, and communication.

A study showed that parents should be encouraged to provide language input to their children through reading or storytelling and also to engage them in two-way conversations.

275 families of children aged 2 to 48 months who were representative of the US census were enrolled in a cross-sectional study of the home language environment and child language development (Phase 1). Of these, a representative sample of 71 families continued for a longitudinal assessment over 18 months (Phase 2). The study set out to test association of adult language input, television viewing, and adult-child conversations on language acquisition among infants and toddlers. The study concluded that adult-child conversations are most robustly associated with healthy language development. Conversations which help to expand a child’s vocabulary will promote expressive skills and language acquisition. Children with better vocabularies have better language and reading abilities in later life.

Talking to children during daily caregiving routines helps them acquire listening, comprehension and communication skills.

In early childcare centre contexts, researchers found that the quantity of educator talk to infants during a mealtime was related to the quality of their turn-taking efforts and question use. Another researcher reported that the quantity of infant-directed talk during mealtimes was positively associated with mothers’ tendency to extend their topic of conversation over multiple utterances as well as infants’ tendency to respond to the topic. Expansion on what toddlers are saying and asking open-ended questions helps them to think and be more motivated to communicate their thoughts.

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19. Gardner-Neblett, N., & Gallagher, K. C. (2013). More than baby talk: 10 ways to promote the language and communication skills of infants and toddlers. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina, FPG Child Development Institute.

The extent to which parents provided children with cognitive stimulation and socio-emotional activities, engaged them in play and taught them about new things was associated with improved language and cognitive outcomes. A study showed that parents who introduced their child to new things, tried to address the child’s emotions and comfort them, talked to their child when feeding them and were interested in their children – by 6 months – were more likely to have language skills in the average range, compared with parents with fewer positive behaviours and perceptions.

The words that children tend to say first are naming words (nouns and proper nouns). Hence, in early stages, playing naming games helps children in acquiring the language, build categorization ability and enhance cognitive skills. Later, exposure to action words (verbs) during the toddler stage helps in grammar development.

Not all parental input characteristics appear to facilitate language. Research has shown some forms of maternal directives, such as those that facilitate the child's engagement in ongoing activity or interests, have been associated with better child language outcomes. However, directive language that changes the child's focus, or has the primary goal of directing or managing the child's behaviour has been shown to slow down pace of children’s language development because they do not encourage them to respond or contribute verbally.

The mutual ability between the caregiver and the child to imitate the actions of others is an important mechanism for social learning (i.e. for acquiring new knowledge) and language development. The child's ability to imitate is also important for what it tells us about child’s prior knowledge. A study of 40 mother-child dyads found that the extent to which mothers imitated their 13-month old children predicted the timing of the children’s later language milestones.3 For instance, a mother might respond “Ball!” to a child’s vocalization of “ba”. Such responses at 13 months uniquely predicted the timing of children’s 50 words in expressive language, combinatorial speech, and first use of language to talk about the past.

A study involving 100 children, aged 14-20 months, demonstrated associations between the frequency with which mothers imitated their children and the frequency with which the children used imitation.

As maternal imitation increased, spontaneous imitative behaviour increased in their children’s speech as well. Researchers concluded that imitation is a skill that can be learned, rather than a personality trait.

Research suggests that increased screen time in young children is linked to negative health outcomes, including increased BMI, decreased cognitive and language development and reduced academic success.

Although the research in the field is not yet conclusive, one of the findings about the impact on language is that it reduces the face-to-face time for children to interact with another person to develop language abilities.

Studies on 119 Hispanic infants and toddlers have shown that children who watch more than 2 hours of television a day had increased odds of lower communication scores.

Children and their caregivers were recruited through an urban, Early Head Start programme. Duration and content of screen media exposure was measured through a 24-hour recall questionnaire, and language development was measured at baseline and at one-year follow up. Children in the sample spent an average of 3.29 hours engaged with screen media (median 2.5 hours per day). In both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, children who watched over 2 hours of television per day had increased odds of low communication scores. Whereas child-directed media was associated with low language scores, adult-directed media was not. The findings support the mounting literature on the deleterious impacts of screen media in toddler’s language development.

Here are some tips on how to improve the quantity and quality of caregivers’ talk to help promote better communicating and speaking:

(a) Talk with babies every day and as much as possible. (b) Narrate daily activities to babies, such as changing diapers, feeding, or bathing. Describe to them your actions and feelings. (c) Respond to babies’ lead. Tune into what babies look at and their expressions and babbles. (d) Ask babies questions and encourage them to answer with facial expressions, gestures, coos, babbles, and words. This back-and-forth communication helps them learn. (e) Talk to babies in a sing-song voice. This type of talking helps them learn words. (f) Use actual words when talking with babies. (g) Repeat words and phrases. (h) Praise your children when they communicate. (i) Talk with babies in the language you are most comfortable using, because you will help your baby learn best by speaking in the language you know most. (j) Use gestures to communicate with babies. (k) Introduce new vocabulary through singing, reading and telling stories. (l) Avoid use of TV or music recordings for language development. TV and recordings do not help babies learn new words. (m) You do not need fancy toys, books, or to even know how to read to talk to your babies. You just need your words. (n) Encourage others who spend time with your babies.