Parental language input differs in quantity and quality across SES groups and relates to children's vocabulary, grammar, and processing development¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · review r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2016 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Across SES groups, parents differ in amount of talk, word types and tokens, topic-continuing responses, and decontextualized language, and these input differences relate to children's vocabulary and grammar outcomes. → Schwab Jessica F. 2016

Evidence¶

Schwab Jessica F. 2016¶

Schwab Jessica F., Lew-Williams Casey. (2016). Language learning, socioeconomic status, and child-directed speech. Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1393

q2 · i? · review · r2

Narrative review of observational studies comparing parental speech across SES groups. The review reports that "middle- and upper-middle-class parents (relative to working class parents) tend to speak more, use more word types and word tokens," with differences also in topic-continuing responses. No effect sizes are printed.

"middle- and upper-middle-class parents (relative to working class parents) tend to speak more, use more word types and word tokens, respond more often in a topic-continuing manner to children’s utterances, and focus less on directing children’s behavior."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Household and community factors—parenting knowledge, stress, depression, and resource scarcity—may mediate or constrain SES-related differences in input and learning — related
• Input quantity at 18 months predicts child vocabulary at 30 months over and above SES and prior vocabulary skill — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Parent education relates to input quantity and quality but not to narrative utterances — related
• Proportions of rare words and decontextualized utterances in parent input increase linearly from 18 to 42 months — related
• Parent rare word use at 30 months predicts child PPVT at 42 months with quantity, SES, and prior vocabulary controlled — related
• Parent narrative utterances at 42 months predict child PPVT at 54 months with quantity, SES, and prior vocabulary controlled — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Within low-SES samples, quality of mother–child communication predicts children's later expressive language more strongly than input quantity — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Parent vocabulary diversity at 30 months predicts child PPVT at 42 months with quantity, SES, and prior vocabulary controlled — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Maternal talk quantity at 18 months predicts Spanish-learning children's vocabulary size and vocabulary gains at 24 months, controlling for earlier vocabulary — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Parent explanations at 42 months are marginally related to child PPVT at 54 months with controls — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Child-directed speech predicts real-time language-processing efficiency at 19 and 24 months and explains gains in efficiency — related
• Amount of child-directed speech at 19 months predicts expressive vocabulary size at 24 months in low-SES Spanish-learning infants — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Parent number talk is not related to children's general vocabulary development once SES and overall talk are controlled, indicating domain specificity — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Substantial variability in maternal talk existed within this primarily low-SES sample, and maternal talk was uncorrelated with SES — reports the opposite
• Teacher mediation interacts with SES: the SES gap in elaborated utterances appears only in the low-mediating classroom — related
• Elaborative reminiscing delivered by non-parents benefits children, with strongest effects for low-SES and lower-ability children — related