Talking to Children Matters: Early Language Experience Strengthens Processing and Builds Vocabulary
Open accessAbstract
Infants differ substantially in their rates of language growth, and slow growth predicts later academic difficulties. In this study, we explored how the amount of speech directed to infants in Spanish-speaking families low in socioeconomic status influenced the development of children’s skill in real-time language processing and vocabulary learning. All-day recordings of parent-infant interactions at home revealed striking variability among families in how much speech caregivers addressed to their child. Infants who experienced more child-directed speech became more efficient in processing familiar words in real time and had larger expressive vocabularies by the age of 24 months, although speech simply overheard by the child was unrelated to vocabulary outcomes. Mediation analyses showed that the effect of child-directed speech on expressive vocabulary was explained by infants’ language-processing efficiency, which suggests that richer language experience strengthens processing skills that facilitate language growth.
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There is a well-known socioeconomic gap in the amount of speech to which children are exposed, and even among low-income families there is substantial variability in how much caregivers talk to their children.
“there is a well-known gap related to socioeconomic status in the amount of speech to which children are exposed (Hart & Risley, 2003), and even among low-income families there is substantial variability in how much caregivers talk to their children (Weisleder & Fernald, 2013).”
From The neglect–enrichment continuum: Characterizing variation in early caregiving environments (2019) · cites this paper as Weisleder & Fernald, 2013
Child-directed speech appears specifically important for children's language development, but it is not clear that more speech, even when child-directed, is always better.
“Although child-directed speech, as opposed to overheard speech, appears specifically to be important for children’s language development (Weisleder & Fernald, 2013), it is not clear that more speech, even when child-directed, is always better.”
From The neglect–enrichment continuum: Characterizing variation in early caregiving environments (2019) · cites this paper as Weisleder & Fernald, 2013
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References 40 · Cited by 1,273
Research works printed but not linked: 5
- Gershkoff-Stowe L Object naming, vocabulary growth, and the development of word retrieval abilities. Journal of Memory and Language 2002 46 4 665 687
- Heath SB Ways with words: Language, life, and work in communities and classrooms 1983 Cambridge University Press Cambridge
- Newport EL Gleitman LR Gleitman H Snow CE Fergus Mother, I'd rather do it myself: Some effects and non-effects of maternal speech style. Talking to children: Language input and acquisition 1977 Cambridge University Press
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- Authors
- Weisleder, A., & Fernald, A.
- Affiliations
- Stanford University (US)
- Venue
- Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2013-09-10
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 2143-2152
- ISSN
- 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9280
- PMC
- PMC5510534
- OpenAlex
- W2102040782
- Cited by
- 1,273
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 92 · 2025: 95 · 2024: 105 · 2023: 90 · 2022: 120 · 2021: 141 · 2020: 153 · 2019: 115 · 2018: 89 · 2017: 89 · 2016: 93 · 2015: 54 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 121.28
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R01DC008838)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Keywords
- child-directed speech, parent-infant interaction, language development, vocabulary development, socioeconomic status, Spanish-speaking families, home language environment
- MeSH terms
- Child, Preschool, Female, Hispanic or Latino, Humans, Individuality, Infant, Language Development, Male, Parent-Child Relations, Poverty, Social Class, Speech Perception, Vocabulary
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