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Wei R, Sullivan EF, Begum F, Rahman N, Tofail F, Haque R, Nelson CA. Parental communicative input as a protective factor in Bangladeshi families living in poverty: A multi-dimensional perspective. Dev Sci 2024:e13494. [PMID: 38504647 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13494] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2023] [Revised: 02/03/2024] [Accepted: 02/25/2024] [Indexed: 03/21/2024]
Abstract
Studies from high-income populations have shown that stimulating, supportive communicative input from parents promote children's cognitive and language development. However, fewer studies have identified specific features of input supporting the healthy development of children growing up in low- or middle-income countries. The current study proposes and tests a multi-dimensional framework for understanding whether and how caregiver communicative input mediates the associations between socio-economic conditions and early development. We also examine how caregiver conceptual scaffolding and autonomy support uniquely and synergistically explain variation in child outcomes. Participants were 71 Bangladeshi families with five-year-olds who were exposed to a range of biological and psychosocial hazards from birth. Caregiver-child interactions during snack sharing and semi-structured play were coded for caregiver conceptual scaffolding, autonomy support, and child engagement. Findings indicate that the two dimensions of input were correlated, suggesting that caregivers who provided richer conceptual scaffolds were simultaneously more supportive of children's autonomy. Notably, conceptual scaffolding and autonomy support each mediated associations between maternal education and child verbal intelligence quotient (IQ) scores. Further, caregivers who supported greater autonomy in their children had children who participated in conversations more actively, and these children in turn had higher performance IQ scores. When considered simultaneously, conceptual scaffolding was associated with verbal IQ over and above autonomy support, whereas autonomy support related to child engagement, controlling for conceptual scaffolding. These findings shed new light on how environmental factors may support early development, contributing to the design of family-centered, culturally authentic interventions. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/9v_8sIv7ako RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Studies from high-income countries have identified factors mitigating the impacts of socio-economic risks on development. Such research is scarce in low- and middle-income countries. The present study conceptualized and evaluated caregiver communicative input in Bangladeshi families along two interrelated yet distinct dimensions: conceptual scaffolding and autonomy support. Conceptual scaffolding and autonomy support individually mediated associations between maternal education and child verbal IQ, shedding light on protective factors in families living in poverty. Parents providing richer conceptual scaffolds were simultaneously more supportive of children's autonomy. However, the two dimensions each related to cognition and language through unique pathways.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ran Wei
- Graduate School of Education, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Eileen F Sullivan
- Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Brookline, Massachusetts, USA
- Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Fatema Begum
- Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Brookline, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Navin Rahman
- Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Brookline, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Fahmida Tofail
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Rashidul Haque
- International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
| | - Charles A Nelson
- Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Brookline, Massachusetts, USA
- Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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Wei R, Kirby A, Naigles LR, Rowe ML. Parents' talk about conceptual categories with infants: stability, variability, and implications for expressive language development. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2023; 50:1204-1225. [PMID: 35758135 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000922000319] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Children's exposure to talk about conceptual categories plays a powerful role in shaping their conceptual development. However, it remains unclear when parents begin to talk about categories with young children and whether such talk relates to children's language skills. This study examines relations between parents' talk about conceptual categories and infants' expressive language development. Forty-seven parent-infant dyads were videotaped playing together at child age 10, 12, 14, and 16 months. Transcripts of interactions were analyzed to identify parents' talk about conceptual categories. Children's expressive language development was assessed at 18 months. Findings indicate that parents indeed talked about conceptual categories with infants and that talk was stable across time, with college-educated parents producing more than non-college-educated parents. Further, parents' talk about conceptual categories between 10 and 16 months predicted children's 18-month expressive language. This study sheds new light on mechanisms through which early experiences may support children's language development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ran Wei
- Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Brookline, MA, USA
| | - Anna Kirby
- Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA, USA
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Muhinyi A, Rowland CF. Contributions of Abstract Extratextual Talk and Interactive Style to Preschoolers' Vocabulary Development. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2023; 50:198-213. [PMID: 36503548 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000921000696] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Caregiver abstract talk during shared reading predicts preschool-age children's vocabulary development. However, previous research has focused on level of abstraction with less consideration of the style of extratextual talk. Here, we investigated the relation between these two dimensions of extratextual talk, and their contributions to variance in children's vocabulary skills. Caregiver level of abstraction was associated with an interactive reading style. Controlling for socioeconomic status and child age, high interactivity predicted children's concurrent vocabulary skills whereas abstraction did not. Controlling for earlier vocabulary skills, neither dimension of the extratextual talk predicted later vocabulary. Theoretical and practical relevance are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Caroline F Rowland
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, University of Liverpool, UK & Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Neuroscience at Radboud University, Netherlands
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Ünlütabak B, Aktan-Erciyes A, Yılmaz D, Kandemir S, Göksun T. Parental input during book reading and toddlers' elicited and spontaneous communicative interactions. JOURNAL OF APPLIED DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.appdev.2022.101436] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
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Ronfard S, Wei R, Rowe ML. Exploring the Linguistic, Cognitive, and Social Skills Underlying Lexical Processing Efficiency as Measured by the Looking-while-Listening Paradigm. JOURNAL OF CHILD LANGUAGE 2022; 49:302-325. [PMID: 33722324 DOI: 10.1017/s0305000921000106] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
The looking-while-listening (LWL) paradigm is frequently used to measure toddlers' lexical processing efficiency (LPE). Children's LPE is associated with vocabulary size, yet other linguistic, cognitive, or social skills contributing to LPE are not well understood. It also remains unclear whether LPE measures from two types of LWL trials (target-initial versus distractor-initial trials) are differentially associated with the abovementioned potential correlates of LPE. We tested 18- to 24-month-olds and found that children's word learning on a fast-mapping task was associated with LPE measures from all trials and distractor-initial trials but not target-initial trials. Children's vocabulary and pragmatic skills were both associated with their fast-mapping performance. Executive functions and pragmatic skills were associated with LPE measures from distractor-initial but not target-initial trials. Hence, LPE as measured by the LWL paradigm may reflect a constellation of skills important to language development. Methodological implications for future studies using the LWL paradigm are discussed.
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