Concurrent relations between child-directed speech and children’s language skills in low-income households

Abstract

This study examined the dimensionality of caregivers’ child-directed talk and the association of child directed talk and children’s language skills at age of 3 years in a sample of 63 low-SES dyads in low-SES homes. Exploratory factor analysis identified that caregivers’ child directed talk is characterized by two dimensions: quantity and complexity. The quantity factor consisted of utterances per minute, total number of words, and type-token ratio, whereas the complexity factor included mean length of utterance and the percentage of complex utterances. After controlling for covariates (e.g. child age, race, maternal education, and language used at home), CDT complexity was significantly related to children’s receptive and expressive language skills, however, this association was not significant for CDT quantity. These results have important implications for intervention development.