Collaborative Research: Language input during parent-child interactions

Parent language input is crucial for child language development. Therefore, there has been considerable interest in documenting the kinds of language children hear from their parents and other caregivers. Prior research shows that parents tune their language to children’s abilities, and well-tuned input is important for children’s language comprehension. This project is based on a theoretical framework that predicts that the degree of tuning is affected by similarities and differences between parents and children. The project tests this theory by examining whether autistic and non-autistic parents speak differently when interacting with their children. Studying these differences in tuning informs broader theories about the mechanisms supporting language development. This project also supports translational science by laying the groundwork for helping to improve interventions that support language development in children. This project uses two kinds of methods to study language input to children. The first method involves surveying parents to ask them how they talk with their children, and about what kind of language they believe supports their child's language development. The second method involves recording parents and children as they play together using a protocol designed to elicit a variety of child behaviors, including turn-taking, pretend play, and making requests of the parent. Parent language input during these play sessions is analyzed to measure different language variables, such as the number and types of questions they ask, mean length of utterances, and speaking rate. This project contributes a dataset of parent-child interactions that can be shared with other researchers to accelerate further discoveries about language development. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.