scholarly journals Depression and Anxiety in the Postnatal Period: An Examination of Infants’ Home Language Environment, Vocalizations, and Expressive Language Abilities

2020 ◽  
Vol 91 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Brookman ◽  
Marina Kalashnikova ◽  
Janet Conti ◽  
Nan Xu Rattanasone ◽  
Kerry‐Ann Grant ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Expressive Language ◽  
Postnatal Period ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Language Abilities ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
Home Language Environment

Speaking of State of Mind: Maternal Mental Health Predicts Children's Home Language Environment and Expressive Language

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Brandon Neil CLIFFORD ◽  
Laura A. STOCKDALE ◽  
Sarah M. COYNE ◽  
Vanessa RAINEY ◽  
Viridiana L. BENITEZ
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Maternal Depression ◽  
Maternal Mental Health ◽  
Expressive Language ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Negatively Associated ◽  
Children's Home ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
Home Language Environment

Abstract Maternal depression and anxiety are potential risk factors to children's language environments and development. Though existing work has examined relations between these constructs, further work is needed accounting for both depression and anxiety and using more direct measures of the home language environment and children's language development. We examined 265 mother-infant dyads (49.6% female, Mage = 17.03 months) from a large city in the Western United States to explore the relations between self-reports of maternal depression and anxiety and observational indices of the home language environment and expressive language as captured by Language Environment Analysis (LENA) and parent-reported language comprehension and production. Results revealed maternal depressive symptoms to be negatively associated with home language environment and expressive language indices. Maternal anxiety symptoms were found to be negatively associated with children's parent-reported language production. These findings provide further evidence that maternal mental health modulates children's home language environments and expressive language.

scholarly journals Variations in the Home Language Environment and Early Language Development in Rural China

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 2671
Author(s):  
Yue Ma ◽  
Laura Jonsson ◽  
Tianli Feng ◽  
Tyler Weisberg ◽  
Teresa Shao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
Child Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
Conversational Turns ◽  
Home Language Environment

The home language environment is critical to early language development and subsequent skills. However, few studies have quantitatively measured the home language environment in low-income, developing settings. This study explores variations in the home language environment and child language skills among households in poor rural villages in northwestern China. Audio recordings were collected for 38 children aged 20–28 months and analyzed using Language Environment Analysis (LENA) software; language skills were measured using the MacArthur–Bates Mandarin Communicative Developmental Inventories expressive vocabulary scale. The results revealed large variability in both child language skills and home language environment measures (adult words, conversational turns, and child vocalizations) with 5- to 6-fold differences between the highest and lowest scores. Despite variation, however, the average number of adult words and conversational turns were lower than found among urban Chinese children. Correlation analyses did not identify significant correlations between demographic characteristics and the home language environment. However, the results do indicate significant correlations between the home language environment and child language skills, with conversational turns showing the strongest correlation. The results point to a need for further research on language engagement and ways to increase parent–child interactions to improve early language development among young children in rural China.

scholarly journals How Much Do Parents Think They Talk to Their Child?

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 163-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Richards ◽  
Jill Gilkerson ◽  
Dongxin Xu ◽  
Keith Topping
Keyword(s):  
Important Implication ◽  
Parent Perceptions ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Objective Measures ◽  
Reference Standard ◽  
Environment Analysis ◽  
Language Environment Analysis ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
Motivation To Participate ◽  
Home Language Environment

This study investigated whether parent perceptions of their own and their child’s levels of talkativeness were related to objective measures recorded via the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) System. Parents of 258 children aged 7 to 60 months completed a questionnaire on which they rated how much they and their child talked. Six months previously, they had recorded in their home language environment using the LENA System. Compared with recording measures, parents tended to overestimate how much they talk to their child, but were somewhat closer when estimating their child’s talkativeness. Results were similar for a smaller sample with concurrent recordings, indicating that calibration of talk volubility is challenging without a reference standard. An important implication is that parents’ motivation to participate in language-focused interventions may be reduced. That is, parents who overestimate how much they talk to their child may also underestimate what they could do to enhance their child’s home language environment.

Effects of early home language environment II: Speech comprehension and cognitive functions

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 537-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
LILY TAO ◽  
QING CAI
Keyword(s):  
Heritage Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Cognitive Outcomes ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Speech Comprehension ◽  
Heritage Languages ◽  
Adult Participants ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
English Heritage ◽  
Home Language Environment

People who were mostly exposed to English with an accent in the early home environment are more native-like when performing various English tasks, compared to those who were mostly exposed to their non-English heritage language (Tao & Taft, 2016). The present study extends from the work of Tao and Taft (2016), further exploring the effects of early home language environment on linguistic and cognitive outcomes later in life. Three groups of young adult participants who differed in their early home language environment were examined on speech comprehension and executive function tasks. Results showed that people who were exposed mostly to non-English heritage languages have disadvantages relative to native monolingual speakers in the comprehension of certain types of stimuli, but show advantages in their executive functioning. Those exposed mostly to nonstandard English showed a less robust advantage in executive functions over native speakers, and showed no apparent disadvantage in speech comprehension.

scholarly journals Effects of home language environment on inhibitory control in bilingual three-year-old children

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOSJE VERHAGEN ◽  
HANNA MULDER ◽  
PAUL P. M. LESEMAN
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Executive Functioning ◽  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Delay Of Gratification ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Conflict Task ◽  
Parental Questionnaire ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
Home Language Environment

Previous studies have shown effects of bilingualism on inhibitory control in preschool children. However, these effects only held for ‘conflict tasks’, and not delay of gratification tasks, and other domains of executive functioning were not investigated. For older children, previous studies have found relationships between bilinguals’ advantages and home language environment. This study investigates effects of bilingualism and bilingual home language environment on executive functioning in three-year-old children. 200 bilingual and 829 monolingual three-year-olds performed tasks of inhibitory control, working memory, and selective attention. Home language environment characteristics were assessed through a parental questionnaire. The bilinguals outperformed the monolinguals on a conflict task only, and this effect was very small. Further analyses showed broader effects on inhibitory control that were related to home language environment: Bilinguals whose parents spoke different languages outperformed bilinguals whose parents spoke the same language on both the conflict task and a delay of gratification task.

Change in home language environment and English literacy achievement over time: A multi-group latent growth curve modeling investigation

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-599
Author(s):  
Hyunah Kim ◽  
Christine Barron ◽  
Jeanne Sinclair ◽  
Eunice Eunhee Jang
Keyword(s):  
Growth Curve Modeling ◽  
Latent Growth Curve ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Literacy Achievement ◽  
Latent Growth ◽  
Curve Modeling ◽  
English Literacy ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Home Language Environment

In most studies investigating the educational outcomes of linguistically diverse students, variables that identify this population have been considered as static. In reality, owing to the dynamic nature of students and their families, students’ home language environments change over time. This study aims to understand how elementary school students’ home language environments change over time, and how longitudinal patterns of English literacy achievement across grades 3, 6, and 10 differ among students with various home language shift patterns in Ontario, Canada. The longitudinal cohort data of 89,609 students between grades 3 and 10 from the provincial assessments were analyzed for changes in their home language environment. A subsample of 18,000 students was used to examine different patterns of relative literacy performance over time and their associations with immigration background and early intervention programming using multi-group latent growth curve modeling. Our findings suggest a strong movement toward an English-dominant home language environment among multilingual students; yet, students whose homes remained as multilingual demonstrated the highest literacy achievement in the early grade as well as the highest improvement in relative performance over time. The paper draws implications for promoting students’ home language, instilling a positive view of multilingual competence.

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