Why Talk with Children Matters: Clinical Implications of Infant- and Child-Directed Speech Research

Nan Bernstein Ratner

doi:10.1055/s-0033-1353449

Seminars in Speech and Language, Table of Contents

Semin Speech Lang 2013; 34(04): 203-214
DOI: 10.1055/s-0033-1353449

Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Why Talk with Children Matters: Clinical Implications of Infant- and Child-Directed Speech Research

Nan Bernstein Ratner

¹Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, Maryland

› Author Affiliations

Abstract

This article reviews basic features of infant- or child-directed speech, with particular attention to those aspects of the register that have been shown to impact profiles of child language development. It then discusses concerns that arise when describing adult input to children with language delay or disorder, or children at risk for depressed language skills. The article concludes with some recommendations for parent counseling in such cases, as well as methods that speech-language pathologists can use to improve the quality and quantity of language input to language-learning children.

Keywords

Child-addressed speech - parent-child interaction - child language development - child language disorders - input

Full Text

References

References
1 Snow CE, Ferguson CA. Talking to Children: Language Input and Acquisition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 1977
2 Gleason JB. The Development of Language. 8th ed. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon; 2012
3 Soderstrom M. Beyond babytalk: re-evaluating the nature and content of speech input to preverbal infants. Dev Rev 2007; 27: 501-532
4 Fernald A, Taeschner T, Dunn J, Papousek M, de Boysson-Bardies B, Fukui I. A cross-language study of prosodic modifications in mothers' and fathers' speech to preverbal infants. J Child Lang 1989; 16: 477-501
5 Ratner NB, Pye C. Higher pitch in BT is not universal: acoustic evidence from Quiche Mayan. J Child Lang 1984; 11: 515-522
6 Bernstein Ratner N. Durational cues which mark clause boundaries in mother-child speech. J Phonetics 1986; 14: 303-309
7 Bernstein Ratner N, Luberoff A. Cues to post-vocalic voicing in mother–child speech. J Phonetics 1984; 12: 285-289
8 Ko ES, Soderstrom M. Additive effects of lengthening on the utterance-final word in child-directed speech. J Speech Lang Hear Res 2013; 56: 364-371
9 Kondaurova MV, Bergeson TR. The effects of age and infant hearing status on maternal use of prosodic cues for clause boundaries in speech. J Speech Lang Hear Res 2011; 54: 740-754
10 Fisher C, Tokura H. Acoustic cues to grammatical structure in infant-directed speech: cross-linguistic evidence. Child Dev 1996; 67: 3192-3218
11 Ratner NB. Patterns of vowel modification in mother-child speech. J Child Lang 1984; 11: 557-578
12 Ratner NB. Phonological rule usage in mother–child speech. J Phonetics 1984; 12: 245-254
13 Englund KT, Behne DM. Infant directed speech in natural interaction—Norwegian vowel quantity and quality. J Psycholinguist Res 2005; 34: 259-280
14 Fernald A. Intonation and communicative intent in mothers' speech to infants: is the melody the message?. Child Dev 1989; 60: 1497-1510
15 Bernstein Ratner N. From “signal to syntax”: but what is the nature of the signal?. In: Morgan JL, Demuth K, , eds. Signal to Syntax: Bootstrapping from Speech to Grammar in Early Acquisition. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc; 1996: 135-50
16 Golinkoff RM, Alioto A. Infant-directed speech facilitates lexical learning in adults hearing Chinese: implications for language acquisition. J Child Lang 1995; 22: 703-726
17 Ryan EB, Hummert ML, Boich LH. Communication predicaments of aging: patronizing behavior toward older adults. J Lang Soc Psychol 1995; 14: 144-166
18 Bernstein Ratner N, Rooney B. How accessible is the lexicon in motherese?. In: Weissenborn J, Höhle B, , eds. Approaches to Bootstrapping: Phonological, Lexical, Syntactic and Neurophysiological Aspects of Early Language Acquisition, I–II. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Benjamins; 2001: 71
19 Brent MR, Cartwright TA. Distributional regularity and phonotactic constraints are useful for segmentation. Cognition 1996; 61: 93-125
20 Goldwater S, Griffiths TL, Johnson M. A Bayesian framework for word segmentation: exploring the effects of context. Cognition 2009; 112: 21-54
21 Mervis CB, Mervis CA, Crisafi MA. Leopards are kitty-cats: object labeling by mothers for their thirteen-month-olds. Child Dev 1982; 53: 267-273
22 Ratner NB. Patterns of parental vocabulary selection in speech to very young children. J Child Lang 1988; 15: 481-492
23 Rowe ML, Pan BA, Coker D. A comparison of fathers' and mothers' talk to toddlers in low-income families. Soc Dev 2004; 13: 278-291
24 Tamis-LeMonda CS, Baumwell L, Cabrera NJ. Fathers' role in children's language development. In: Cabrera NJ, Tamis-LeMonda CS, , eds. Handbook of Father Involvement: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group; 2013: 135-50
25 Pancsofar N, Vernon-Feagans L. Mother and father language input to young children: contributions to later language development. J Appl Dev Psychol 2006; 27: 571-587
26 DeThorne LS, Channell RW. Clinician-child interactions: adjustments in linguistic complexity. Am J Speech Lang Pathol 2007; 16: 119-127
27 Bowers EP, Vasilyeva M. The relation between teacher input and lexical growth of preschoolers. Appl Psycholinguist 2011; 32: 221-241
28 Girolametto L, Weitzman E. Responsiveness of child care providers in interactions with toddlers and preschoolers. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch 2002; 33: 268-281
29 Nind M, Kellett M, Hopkins V. Teachers' talk styles: communicating with learners with severe and complex learning difficulties. Child Lang Teach Ther 2001; 17: 143-159
30 Weppelman TL, Bostow A, Schiffer R, Elbert-Perez E, Newman RS. Children's use of the prosodic characteristics of infant-directed speech. Lang Commun 2003; 23: 63-80
31 Huttenlocher J. Language input and language growth. Prev Med 1998; 27: 195-199
32 Rowe ML. A longitudinal investigation of the role of quantity and quality of child-directed speech in vocabulary development. Child Dev 2012; 83: 1762-1774
33 Rollins PR. Caregivers' contingent comments to 9-month-old infants: relationships with later language. Appl Psycholinguist 2003; 24: 221-234
34 Shneidman LA, Goldin-Meadow S. Language input and acquisition in a Mayan village: how important is directed speech?. Dev Sci 2012; 15: 659-673
35 Shneidman LA, Arroyo ME, Levine SC, Goldin-Meadow S. What counts as effective input for word learning?. J Child Lang 2013; 40: 672-686
36 Zimmerman FJ, Gilkerson J, Richards JA , et al. Teaching by listening: the importance of adult-child conversations to language development. Pediatrics 2009; 124: 342-349
37 Mendelsohn AL, Brockmeyer CA, Dreyer BP, Fierman AH, Berkule-Silberman SB, Tomopoulos S. Do verbal interactions with infants during electronic media exposure mitigate adverse impacts on their language development as toddlers?. Infant Child Dev 2010; 19: 577-593
38 Weizman ZO, Snow CE. Lexical input as related to children's vocabulary acquisition: effects of sophisticated exposure and support for meaning. Dev Psychol 2001; 37: 265-279
39 Hoff E, Naigles L. How children use input to acquire a lexicon. Child Dev 2002; 73: 418-433
40 Goodman JC, Dale PS, Li P. Does frequency count? Parental input and the acquisition of vocabulary. J Child Lang 2008; 35: 515-531
41 Hurtado N, Marchman VA, Fernald A. Does input influence uptake? Links between maternal talk, processing speed and vocabulary size in Spanish-learning children. Dev Sci 2008; 11: F31-F39
42 Huttenlocher J, Haight W, Bryk A, Seltzer M, Lyons T. Early vocabulary growth: relation to language input and gender. Dev Psychol 1991; 27: 236-248
43 Furrow D, Nelson K, Benedict H. Mothers' speech to children and syntactic development: some simple relationships. J Child Lang 1979; 6: 423-442
44 Hadley PA, Rispoli M, Fitzgerald C, Bahnsen A. Predictors of morphosyntactic growth in typically developing toddlers: contributions of parent input and child sex. J Speech Lang Hear Res 2011; 54: 549-566
45 Naigles LR, Hoff-Ginsberg E. Why are some verbs learned before other verbs? Effects of input frequency and structure on children's early verb use. J Child Lang 1998; 25: 95-120
46 Rowland CF, Pine JM, Lieven EVM, Theakston AL. Determinants of acquisition order in wh-questions: re-evaluating the role of caregiver speech. J Child Lang 2003; 30: 609-635
47 Huttenlocher J, Vasilyeva M, Cymerman E, Levine S. Language input and child syntax. Cognit Psychol 2002; 45: 337-374
48 Newport EL, Gleitman H, Gleitman LR. “Mother, I'd rather do it myself”: some effects and non-effects of maternal speech style. In: Snow CE, Ferguson CA, , eds. Talking to Children: Language Input and Acquisition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 1977: 109-49
49 Akhtar N, Dunham F, Dunham PJ. Directive interactions and early vocabulary development: the role of joint attentional focus. J Child Lang 1991; 18: 41-49
50 McCathren RB, Yoder PJ, Warren SF. The role of directives in early language intervention. J Early Interv 1995; 19: 91-101
51 Murray AD, Hornbaker AV. Maternal directive and facilitative interaction styles: associations with language and cognitive development of low risk and high risk toddlers. Dev Psychopathol 1997; 9: 507-516
52 Girolametto L, Tannock R. Correlates of directiveness in the interactions of fathers and mothers of children with developmental delays. J Speech Hear Res 1994; 37: 1178-1191
53 Pennington L, McConachie H. Mother-child interaction revisited: communication with non-speaking physically disabled children. Int J Lang Commun Disord 1999; 34: 391-416
54 Andersen CE, Marinac JV. Using an observational framework to investigate adult language input to young children in a naturalistic environment. Child Lang Teach Ther 2007; 23: 307-324
55 Nwokah EE. Maidese versus motherese—is the language input of child and adult caregivers similar?. Lang Speech 1987; 30 (Pt 3) 213-237
56 Girolametto L, Weitzman E, van Lieshout R, Duff D. Directiveness in teachers' language input to toddlers and preschoolers in day care. J Speech Lang Hear Res 2000; 43: 1101-1114
57 National Institute of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Mother-Child Interaction and Cognitive Outcomes Associated with Early Child Care: Results of the NICHD Study. Bethesda, MD: National Institutes of Health; ; April, 1997
58 Girolametto L, Hoaken L, Weitzman E, van Lieshout R. Patterns of adult-child linguistic interaction in integrated day care groups. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch 2000; 31: 155-168
59 Barachetti C, Lavelli M. Responsiveness of children with specific language impairment and maternal repairs during shared book reading. Int J Lang Commun Disord 2011; 46: 579-591
60 Conti-Ramsden G, Hutcheson GD, Grove J. Contingency and breakdown: children with SLI and their conversations with mothers and fathers. J Speech Hear Res 1995; 38: 1290-1302
61 Paul R, Elwood TJ. Maternal linguistic input to toddlers with slow expressive language development. J Speech Hear Res 1991; 34: 982-988
62 Fey ME, Krulik TE, Loeb DF, Proctor-Williams K. Sentence recast use by parents of children with typical language and children with specific language impairment. Am J Speech Lang Pathol 1999; 8: 273-286
63 Proctor-Williams K, Fey ME, Loeb DF. Parental recasts and production in copulas and articles by children with specific language impairment and typical language. Am J Speech Lang Pathol 2001; 10: 155-168
64 van Kleeck A, Schwarz AL, Fey M, Kaiser A, Miller J, Weitzman E. Should we use telegraphic or grammatical input in the early stages of language development with children who have language impairments? A meta-analysis of the research and expert opinion. Am J Speech Lang Pathol 2010; 19: 3-21
65 Fey ME. The (mis-)use of telegraphic input in child language intervention. Rev Logop Fon Audiol 2008; 28: 218-230
66 Warlaumont AS, Jarmulowicz L. Caregivers' suffix frequencies and suffix acquisition by language impaired, late talking, and typically developing children. J Child Lang 2012; 39: 1017-1042
67 Wolfe DL, Heilmann J. Simplified and expanded input in a focused stimulation program for a child with expressive language delay (ELD). Child Lang Teach Ther 2010; 26: 335-346
68 Lederberg AR, Schick B, Spencer PE. Language and literacy development of deaf and hard-of-hearing children: successes and challenges. Dev Psychol 2013; 49: 15-30
69 VanDam M, Ambrose SE, Moeller MP. Quantity of parental language in the home environments of hard-of-hearing 2-year-olds. J Deaf Stud Deaf Educ 2012; 17: 402-420
70 Cruz I, Quittner AL, Marker C, DesJardin JL. CDaCI Investigative Team. Identification of effective strategies to promote language in deaf children with cochlear implants. Child Dev 2013; 84: 543-559
71 Szagun G, Stumper B. Age or experience? The influence of age at implantation and social and linguistic environment on language development in children with cochlear implants. J Speech Lang Hear Res 2012; 55: 1640-1654
72 Yont KM, Snow CE, Vernon-Feagans L. Is chronic otitis media associated with differences in parental input at 12 months of age? An analysis of joint attention and directives. Appl Psycholinguist 2003; 24: 581-602
73 Rowe ML, Levine SC, Fisher JA, Goldin-Meadow S. Does linguistic input play the same role in language learning for children with and without early brain injury?. Dev Psychol 2009; 45: 90-102
74 Rondal JA. Maternal speech to normal and Down's syndrome children matched for mean length of utterance. Monogr Am Assoc Ment Defic 1978; (3) 193-265
75 Iverson JM, Longobardi E, Spampinato K, Cristina Caselli M. Gesture and speech in maternal input to children with Down's syndrome. Int J Lang Commun Disord 2006; 41: 235-251
76 Buium N, Rynders J, Turnure J. Early maternal linguistic environment of normal and Down's syndrome language-learning children. Am J Ment Defic 1974; 79: 52-58
77 Zampini L, Fasolo M, D'Odorico L. Characteristics of maternal input to children with Down syndrome: a comparison with vocabulary size and chronological age-matched groups. First Lang 2012; 32: 324-342
78 Ratner NB. Caregiver-child interactions and their impact on children's fluency: implications for treatment. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch 2004; 35: 46-56
79 Ratner NB. Translating recent research into meaningful clinical practice. Semin Speech Lang 2010; 31: 236-249
80 Miles S, Ratner NB. Parental language input to children at stuttering onset. J Speech Lang Hear Res 2001; 44: 1116-1130
81 Bernstein Ratner N. Measurable outcomes of instructions to modify normal parent-child verbal interactions: implications for indirect stuttering therapy. J Speech Hear Res 1992; 35: 14-20
82 Ratner NB. Caregiver-child interactions and their impact on children's fluency: implications for treatment. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch 2004; 35: 46-56
83 Hart B, Risley TR. Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children. Boston, MA: Brookes Publishing; 1995
84 Pan BA, Rowe ML, Singer JD, Snow CE. Maternal correlates of growth in toddler vocabulary production in low-income families. Child Dev 2005; 76: 763-782
85 Adams JL, Ramey CT. Structural aspects of maternal speech to infants reared in poverty. Child Dev 1980; 51: 1280-1284
86 Hart B, Risley TR. American parenting of language-learning children: persisting differences in family-child interactions observed in natural home environments. Dev Psychol 1992; 28: 1096-1105
87 Rowe ML, Coker D, Pan BA. A comparison of fathers' and mothers' talk to toddlers in low-income families. Soc Dev 2004; 13: 278-291
88 Cates CB, Dreyer BP, Berkule SB, White LJ, Arevalo JA, Mendelsohn AL. Infant communication and subsequent language development in children from low-income families: the role of early cognitive stimulation. J Dev Behav Pediatr 2012; 33: 577-585
89 Hoff E. The specificity of environmental influence: socioeconomic status affects early vocabulary development via maternal speech. Child Dev 2003; 74: 1368-1378
90 Abraham LM, Crais E, Vernon-Feagans L. Family Life Project Phase 1 Key Investigators. Early maternal language use during book sharing in families from low-income environments. Am J Speech Lang Pathol 2013; 22: 71-83
91 Whitmarsh J. Out of the mouth of babes: first-time disadvantaged mothers and their perceptions of infant communication. Int J Early Years Educ 2011; 19: 283-296
92 Kaplan PS, Bachorowski JA, Smoski MJ, Hudenko WJ. Infants of depressed mothers, although competent learners, fail to learn in response to their own mothers' infant-directed speech. Psychol Sci 2002; 13: 268-271
93 Paulson JF, Keefe HA, Leiferman JA. Early parental depression and child language development. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2009; 50: 254-262
94 Chapin LA, Altenhofen S. Neurocognitive perspectives in language outcomes of early head start: language and cognitive stimulation and maternal depression. Infant Ment Health J 2010; 31: 486-498
95 Vernon-Feagans L, Garrett-Peters P, Willoughby M, Mills-Koonce R. The Family Life Project Key Investigators. Chaos, poverty, and parenting: predictors of early language development. Early Child Res Q 2012; 27: 339-351
96 Pinto AI, Pessanha M, Aguiar C. Effects of home environment and center-based child care quality on children's language, communication, and literacy outcomes. Early Child Res Q 2013; 28: 94-101
97 Turnbull KP, Anthony AB, Justice L, Bowles R. Preschoolers' exposure to language stimulation in classrooms serving at-risk children: the contribution of group size and activity context. Early Educ Dev 2009; 20: 53-79
98 Deutscher B, Fewell RR, Gross M. Enhancing the interactions of teenage mothers and their at-risk children: effectiveness of a maternal-focused intervention. Top Early Child Spec Educ 2006; 26: 194-205
99 Reese E, Sparks A, Leyva D. A review of parent interventions for preschool children's language and emergent literacy. J Early Child Literacy 2010; 10: 97-117
100 Leffel K, Suskind D. Parent-directed approaches to enrich the early language environments of children living in poverty. Semin Speech Lang 2013; 34: 193-204
101 Carter AS, Messinger DS, Stone WL, Celimli S, Nahmias AS, Yoder P. A randomized controlled trial of Hanen's “More Than Words” in toddlers with early autism symptoms. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2011; 52: 741-752
102 McConkey R, Truesdale-Kennedy M, Crawford H, McGreevy E, Reavey M, Cassidy A. Preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders: evaluating the impact of a home-based intervention to promote their communication. Early Child Dev Care 2010; 180: 299-315
103 Girolametto L, Sussman F, Weitzman E. Using case study methods to investigate the effects of interactive intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders. J Commun Disord 2007; 40: 470-492
104 Pennington L, Thomson K, James P, Martin L, McNally R. Effects of it takes two to talk—the Hanen program for parents of preschool children with cerebral palsy: findings from an exploratory study. J Speech Lang Hear Res 2009; 52: 1121-1138
105 Baxendale J, Hesketh A. Comparison of the effectiveness of the Hanen Parent Programme and traditional clinic therapy. Int J Lang Commun Disord 2003; 38: 397-415
106 Allen J, Marshall CR. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) in school-aged children with specific language impairment. Int J Lang Commun Disord 2011; 46: 397-410
107 Pearce PS, Girolametto L, Weitzman E. The effects of focused stimulation intervention on mothers of late-talking toddlers. Infant-Toddler Intervention 1996; 6: 213-227
108 Cable AL, Domsch C. Systematic review of the literature on the treatment of children with late language emergence. Int J Lang Commun Disord 2011; 46: 138-154
109 Smith-Lock KM, Leitao S, Lambert L, Nickels L. Effective intervention for expressive grammar in children with specific language impairment. Int J Lang Commun Disord 2013; 48: 265-282
110 Farrant BM, Zubrick SR. Early vocabulary development: the importance of joint attention and parent-child book reading. First Lang 2012; 32: 343-364
111 Landry SH, Smith KE, Swank PR, Zucker T, Crawford AD, Solari EF. The effects of a responsive parenting intervention on parent-child interactions during shared book reading. Dev Psychol 2012; 48: 969-986
112 Bernstein Ratner N, Parker B, Gardner P. Joint bookreading as a language scaffolding activity for communicatively impaired children. Semin Speech Lang 2008; 14: 296-313