Child-directed speech varies dramatically among low-SES families, up to an 18-fold difference, largely independent of maternal education and overall talkativeness¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · associational r1–r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2013 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2018: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Total adult speech ranged from almost 29,000 to fewer than 2,000 words per 10-hour day, and child-directed speech differed up to 18-fold between families. → Weisleder Adriana 2013 q3 i? Differences in child-directed speech were uncorrelated with maternal education (r = .29, p = .13) and with overheard speech (r = .17, p = .38). → Weisleder Adriana 2013 (2)

Evidence¶

Weisleder Adriana 2013¶

Weisleder Adriana, Fernald Anne. (2013). Talking to children matters: Early language experience strengthens processing and builds vocabulary. Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613488145

q3 · i? · associational · r2

Descriptive analysis of LENA-based all-day home recordings from 29 low-SES Latino families at 19 months (Figure 1), showing striking variability in adult speech accessible to infants within a demographically homogeneous disadvantaged group.

"in one family, caregivers spoke more than 12,000 words to the infant, while in another the infant heard only 670 words of child-directed speech over an entire day, an 18-fold difference in the amount of child-directed speech available to these two children"

Weisleder Adriana 2013 (2)¶

Weisleder Adriana, Fernald Anne. (2013). Talking to children matters: Early language experience strengthens processing and builds vocabulary. Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613488145

q3 · i? · associational · r1

Correlational checks on the same 29-family sample: child-directed speech was also not correlated with overheard speech (r = .17, p = .38), which the article reads as showing differences reflect caregivers' degree of verbal engagement rather than overall talkativeness.

"These differences in parental engagement were uncorrelated with maternal education (r = .29, p = .13)"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Within low-SES samples, quality of mother–child communication predicts children's later expressive language more strongly than input quantity — related
• Substantial variability in maternal talk existed within this primarily low-SES sample, and maternal talk was uncorrelated with SES — related
• The number of conversational turns is more closely associated with children's language skills and language-related brain function than the raw number of words heard, regardless of family income or education. — related
• Amount of child-directed speech at 19 months predicts expressive vocabulary size at 24 months in low-SES Spanish-learning infants — related
• LENA automated adult word counts are reliable for Spanish-language home environments — related
• Overheard adult speech is unrelated to 24-month vocabulary, unlike child-directed speech — related