Abstract:
Infants learn language through the back-and-forth interactions with their parents where they \"serve\" by uttering sounds, gesturing, or looking and parents \"return\" in prompt (i.e., close in time) and meaningful (i.e., semantically relevant to the object of interest) ways. In a sample of 9-month-old infants (n = 148) and their mothers and fathers (n = 296 parents) from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds, we examined the associations between \"serve and return\" (SR) parent-child interactions and children\'s language skills at 18 and 24 months. We also examined the moderation effects between maternal and paternal SR interactions on language outcomes. SR interactions were transcribed and coded from videotaped parent-child toy play activities during home visits. We report three findings. First, mothers who provided more meaningful responses to their child\'s serves at 9 months had children with higher expressive language scores at 18 months. Second, fathers\' prompt responses (i.e., within 3 s) at 9 months were associated with higher receptive language scores at 18 months, but their meaningful responses were negatively associated with receptive language scores at 24 months. Third, the negative association between fathers\' meaningful responses and children\'s receptive language scores was reduced (compensated) when mothers\' meaningful responses were high. Findings show that infants in ethnically and socioeconomically diverse families engage in frequent SR interactions with both mothers and fathers, who make unique contributions to infants\' language development. We discuss implications for programs and policies that aim to promote early language development and reduce gaps in school readiness.
摘要:
婴儿通过与父母的来回互动来学习语言,他们通过发出声音来“服务”,打手势,或在提示中寻找和父母“返回”(即,在时间上接近)和有意义的(即,与感兴趣的对象在语义上相关)的方式。在来自种族和社会经济不同背景的9个月大婴儿(n=148)及其父母(n=296父母)的样本中,我们在18个月和24个月时检查了“服务和返回”(SR)亲子互动与儿童语言技能之间的关联.我们还研究了母亲和父亲SR互动对语言结果的调节作用。在家访期间,从录像的亲子玩具游戏活动中对SR交互进行了转录和编码。我们报告了三个发现。首先,在9个月时对孩子的服务提供更有意义的回应的母亲,在18个月时孩子的表达性语言得分较高。第二,父亲迅速回应(即,在3秒内)在9个月时与18个月时更高的接受语言分数相关,但在24个月时,他们有意义的回答与接受性语言得分呈负相关.第三,当母亲的有意义的回答较高时,父亲的有意义的回答和孩子的接受性语言分数之间的负相关性降低(补偿).研究结果表明,种族和社会经济多样化家庭中的婴儿与母亲和父亲经常进行SR互动,对婴儿语言发展做出独特贡献的人。我们讨论了旨在促进早期语言发展并减少学校准备差距的计划和政策的含义。