title: Child-directed speech: relation to socioeconomic status, knowledge of child development and child vocabulary skill.
abstract: This study sought to determine why American parents from different socioeconomic backgrounds communicate in different ways with their children. Forty-seven parent-child dyads were videotaped engaging in naturalistic interactions in the home for ninety minutes at child age 2;6. Transcripts of these interactions provided measures of child-directed speech. Children's vocabulary comprehension skills were measured using the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test at 2;6 and one year later at 3;6. Results indicate that: (I) child-directed speech with toddlers aged 2;6 predicts child vocabulary skill one year later, controlling for earlier toddler vocabulary skill; (2) child-directed speech relates to socioeconomic status as measured by income and education; and (3) the relation between socioeconomic status and child-directed speech is mediated by parental knowledge of child development. Potential mechanisms through which parental knowledge influences communicative behavior are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, 5848 S. University Ave, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. rowemer@uchicago.edu
authors.forename: Meredith L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Rowe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013060:Speech; D014825:Vocabulary