Quantities of Adult Language and How it Affects Child Language Development

Abstract

In this project I am looking at possible sensitive periods of children’s language development. I will be investigating the quantities of language used by parents with their children at multiple time periods when children are 0-30 months of age, and how this influences children’s language skills when they are 30 months of age. A total of 78 parent-child dyads were originally recruited for this longitudinal study, which included 5 min free-play videos that were collected at 4 different ages for each child (e.g., 12, 18, 24, and 30 months of age). Across these four waves of data there are 264 videos that were used for this project. We transcribed these free-play videos between parents and their children at each of these waves of data collection. The purpose of this study is to build upon previous research regarding sensitive periods of children’s language development and the effects of the quantities of language that adults use when interacting with children. In particular, I am investigating the quantities of language parents use with their children, in order to better understand when these quantities of parents’ language are most crucial to and predictive of children’s later language development (e.g., are there sensitive periods for children’s language development, when their parents’ use of specific quantities of language are most influential?). This research can help inform professional development for individuals in the field of early childhood, and it could also be used to inform parenting education and practices.