Substantial variability in maternal talk existed within this primarily low-SES sample, and maternal talk was uncorrelated with SES¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 2008 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2013: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Mothers who talked more heard on average seven times more words, five times more utterances, three times more different words, and sentences twice as long as children of less talkative mothers, and maternal talk was uncorrelated with Hollingshead SES. → Hurtado Nereyda 2008

Evidence¶

Hurtado Nereyda 2008¶

Hurtado Nereyda, Marchman Virginia A., Fernald Anne. (2008). Does input influence uptake? Links between maternal talk, processing speed and vocabulary size in Spanish-learning children. Developmental Science. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2898277/

q2 · i? · associational · r1

Descriptive analysis of maternal speech from 12-minute play sessions at 18 months in the primarily low-SES sample (mean Hollingshead HI = 24.3; 70% in lowest two strata). The article reports children of more talkative mothers "heard on average seven times more words, five times more utterances, three times more different words"; maternal talk was uncorrelated with HI.

"The children of mothers who talked relatively more heard on average seven times more words, five times more utterances, three times more different words, and sentences that were twice as long as those heard by children of less talkative mothers."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Maternal talk quantity at 18 months predicts Spanish-learning children's vocabulary size and vocabulary gains at 24 months, controlling for earlier vocabulary — related
• Within low-SES samples, quality of mother–child communication predicts children's later expressive language more strongly than input quantity — related
• Children of mothers who produced more word tokens at 18 months were faster to recognize familiar words at 24 months — related
• Maternal talk influences on vocabulary and processing speed are largely overlapping, with each mediating the other's relation to input — related
• Children's vocabulary and reaction time improved significantly from 18 to 24 months, and maternal talk measures were highly intercorrelated — 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
• Child-directed speech varies dramatically among low-SES families, up to an 18-fold difference, largely independent of maternal education and overall talkativeness — related
• Parental language input differs in quantity and quality across SES groups and relates to children's vocabulary, grammar, and processing development — reports the opposite
• Amount of child-directed speech at 19 months predicts expressive vocabulary size at 24 months in low-SES Spanish-learning infants — related