Abstract
During the first few years of life, children rapidly develop important cognitive and socioemotional skills (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). Engaging in conversations with caregivers at home (Gilkerson et al., 2018) and in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings (Burchinal et al., 2008) plays a crucial role in supporting children's language development, which in turn contributes to the development of self-regulation and executive function skills (Bohlmann et al., 2015). As these early skills have long-lasting associations with outcomes in adulthood (Moffitt et al., 2011), it is important to understand how adults can effectively support young children's development through language interactions.
One important context for rich adult-child language interactions is through talking about past events, or reminiscing. Indeed, high-quality parent-child reminiscing practices have been associated with a range of developmental benefits, including children’s autobiographical memory, language, and theory of mind skills (Waters et al., 2019). More recently, research has also linked parents’ reminiscing style to preschool children’s executive function (EF) skills. However, no study has investigated this relationship with toddlers. In Study 1, we investigated how parent and child reminiscing variables were associated with toddlers’ EF during conversations about a recent shared event. EF was measured based on laboratory measures of behavioural inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory. After accounting for child language and demographics, EF was uniquely predicted by both parents’ (e.g., elaborative yes-no questions, confirmations, and repetitions) and children’s (e.g. memory elaborations and memory questions, evaluations, and placeholders) reminiscing variables. Child sex also moderated many of these relationships.
In Study 2, we evaluated naturalistic educator language practices in an ECEC environment; specifically, we examined how language input varied based on activity setting. Previous research has found that educators use different kinds of language across different contexts including play and book-reading (Hoff et al., 2024). However, no study has compared a wide variety of settings, and few have studied toddler classrooms. Thus, Study 2 explored how educator language quality varied across 5 activity settings: nappy change, book-reading, group, play, and mealtime. Video data was transcribed and coded for temporal reference (e.g., past and future event talk) and conversational function (e.g. directive vs. conversation eliciting talk). Consistent with past research (Dickinson et al., 2014; Gest et al., 2006), educators used more past-event and conversation-eliciting talk during shared book-reading. On the other hand, nappy change was associated with the highest rate of directive talk, and mealtime with the lowest rate of overall talk.
In Study 3, we reported on the effects of an ECEC professional development randomized controlled trial called ENRICH (ENhancing RICH interactions). Although many ECEC intervention studies have aimed to improve long-term child outcomes, research has yielded mixed results (Burchinal et al., 2024). However, the quality of many of these programs has been generally low and evaluated with measurement strategies that do not provide fine-grained information about program implementation (Dickinson, Freiberg, et al., 2010). Thus, the current study aimed to investigate ENRICH, an oral language intervention designed for toddlers, based on video data collected at baseline and a one-year follow-up. Similar to Study 2, educator-child interactions were coded for temporal reference and conversational functions. Overall, educators in the ENRICH condition asked more elaborative questions to children over time during nappy change/toileting and shared book-reading compared to the control. Further, ENRICH children also contributed more during shared book-reading over time compared to children in the control.
Overall, these studies consider the important role of both parent and educator language in toddlers’ early language environment. Study 1 provides evidence that these early language practices are associated with children’s key cognitive and language skills. Studies 2 and 3 support the notion that adults’ child-directed language can vary based on contextual factors as well as participation in intervention programs.