title: Early Home Activities and Oral Language Skills in Middle Childhood: A Quantile Analysis.
abstract: Oral language development is a key outcome of elementary school, and it is important to identify factors that predict it most effectively. Commonly researchers use ordinary least squares regression with conclusions restricted to average performance conditional on relevant covariates. Quantile regression offers a more sophisticated alternative. Using data of 17,687 children from the United Kingdom's Millennium Cohort Study, we compared ordinary least squares and quantile models with language development (verbal similarities) at 11 years as the outcome. Gender had more of an effect at the top of the distribution, whereas poverty, early language, and reading to the child had a greater effect at the bottom. The picture for TV watching was more mixed. The results are discussed in terms of the provision of universal and targeted interventions.
authors.affiliation: Newcastle University.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Law
authors.affiliation: Queen Margaret University.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rush
authors.affiliation: Newcastle University.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: King
authors.affiliation: Latrobe University.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Westrupp
authors.affiliation: Griffith University.
authors.forename: Sheena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reilly
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D016487:Parenting; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011932:Reading; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012737:Sex Factors; D013690:Television / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006113:United Kingdom; D014825:Vocabulary