TABLE 7 - uploaded by Amanda K. Kibler
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Source publication
We examined the language practices of five mother-child dyads during a structured play activity, particularly in relation to maternal question use. The study includes second-generation, four year-old children of Mexican immigrants who demonstrate either high vocabulary levels in English and Spanish or low-levels of vocabulary in both languages. Exa...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... of child-to-mother utterances during question-response. To further characterize the nature of interactions around perceptual and conceptual questions, a count of the number of words used by the focal child and the mother following a maternal initiation was obtained (Table 7). Subsequently, a ratio of child-to-mother utterances was computed using the word counts. ...
Context 2
... also examined who contributed more words during the mother-child interactions facilitated by perceptual and conceptual questions by computing a ratio of words uttered by the focal children and their mothers ( Table 7). When considering all the perceptual question interac- tions, mother dominance of the conversation was most common, as all the ratios fall below 1. ...
Citations
... A parallel cascade can be described in bilingual development (De Houwer et al., 2018;Hurtado, Gr€ uter, Marchman, & Fernald, 2014). Here, as in the monolingual literature, input is most often defined by proximal factors that directly relate to the speech children hear such as exaggerated vowel production in infant-directed speech (Kalashnikova & Carreiras, 2022), the types of questions adults pose (Palacios, Kibler, Baird, Parr, & Bergey, 2015) and the kind of verbal scaffolding caregivers provide in the context of naturalistic daily interactions in each language (Casla et al., 2021;Fletcher, Cates, Mendelsohn, & Tamis-LeMonda, 2020). As is critical in the study of cascades, these predictive patterns hold even after accounting for the developmental continuity and stability that would be expected over time in any domain of adaptive behavior (Bornstein, Putnick, & Esposito, 2017). ...
The first 5 years of life are characterized by incredible growth across domains of child development. Drawing from over 50 years of seminal research, this chapter contextualizes recent advances in language sciences through the lens of developmental cascades to explore complexities and connections in acquisition. Converging evidence-both classic and contemporary-points to the many ways in which advances in one learning system can pose significant and lasting impacts on the advances in other learning systems. This chapter reviews evidence in developmental literature from multiple domains and disciplines (i.e., cognitive, social, motor, bilingual language learning, and communication sciences and disorders) to examine the phenomenon of developmental cascades in language acquisition.
... In a study of discourse during book-sharing at age 4 in mother-child dyads across multiple ethnic groups, mothers' questions were shown to be finely tuned to their child's level of participation (Luo & Tamis-LeMonda, 2017). A small-scale study of five Mexican immigrant mothers and their 4-yearolds found that mothers who produced more clarification or explanation questions were more likely to have children with stronger language skills (Palacios et al., 2015). Fewer studies have investigated developmental change in the way children ask and respond to questions during this period, although a recent review posits that children's questioning behavior shapes interactions with caregivers and may be important for their language development (Ronfard et al., 2018). ...
Purpose
This longitudinal study assessed continuity and stability of productive language (vocabulary and grammar) and discourse features (turn-taking; asking and responding to questions) during mother–child play.
Method
Parent–child language use in 119 Spanish-speaking, Mexican immigrant mothers and their children at two ages (M = 2.5 and 3.6 years) was evaluated from transcriptions of interactions.
Results
Child productive language significantly increased over the year, whereas mothers showed commensurate increases in vocabulary diversity but very little change in grammatical complexity. Mother–child discourse was characterized by discontinuity: Mothers decreased their turn length and asked fewer questions while children increased on both measures. Rates of responding to questions remained high for both mothers and children even as children increased and mothers decreased over time. Mothers and children showed significant rank-order stability in productive language and measures of discourse. Mothers' rate of asking questions and children's responses to questions during the first interaction predicted children's receptive vocabulary a year later.
Conclusions
As children become more sophisticated communicators, language input remains important, with discourse features growing in relevance. Children's early opportunities to respond to parents' questions in the context of play benefit their language skills. This work extends the evidence base from monolingual English-speaking families and is interpreted in the context of prior research on parenting practices in U.S. families of Mexican origin.
... Thus, even for an internal characteristic such as processing ability, external factors play a role. Palacios et al. (2015) showed how a childinternal factor (level of language development) was dynamically influenced by an external factor, namely, parental interaction: Spanish-English bilingual children's different levels of language development elicited different levels of supportive language input from parents, which in turn affected children's linguistic skills. ...
In the first decade of life, children become bilingual in different language learning environments. Many children start learning two languages from birth (Bilingual First Language Acquisition). In early childhood hitherto monolingual children start hearing a second language through day care or preschool (Early Second Language Acquisition). Yet other hitherto monolingual children in middle childhood may acquire a second language only after entering school (Second Language Acquisition). This Element explains how these different language learning settings dynamically affect bilingual children’s language learning trajectories. All children eventually learn to speak the societal language, but they often do not learn to fluently speak their non-societal language and may even stop speaking it. Children’s and families’ harmonious bilingualism is threatened if bilingual children do not develop high proficiency in both languages. Educational institutions and parental conversational practices play
a pivotal role in supporting harmonious bilingual development.
... The factors I discuss are "proximal", viz., they bear a direct relation to the actual speech children are hearing at one time or over time, although some are more directly related than others. Examples of proximal factors are the kinds of questions children are asked (Palacios et al., 2015), the extent to which children are read to in a particular language (Kibler et al., 2016), and how parents react when children address them in a language parents do not speak to them (Juan-Garau & Pérez-Vidal, 2001). Proximal factors are embedded in language-learning environments shaped by more "distal" psychosocial and cultural factors such as maternal language ideologies (Nakamura, 2016), parental beliefs and attitudes (De Houwer, 1999, 2009), children's living conditions and social class differences (Weisleder & Fernald, 2014), and the social status of languages (Pearson, 2007). ...
... So far, few studies have studied these aspects in speech to bilingual children. A notable exception is the study by Palacios et al. (2015), who found large variability amongst mothers in the number and kinds of questions they asked their English-Spanish bilingual 4-year-olds. ...
This chapter outlines a holistic framework for approaching the study of language input to children under age 6 acquiring oral languages in bilingual settings. After a brief historical overview, the input factors discussed include relative timing of input in two languages, cumulative, absolute and relative frequency of overall language input, input frequency of linguistic categories, language models, the people speaking to children and language choice patterns, communicative settings and media use, and interactional style. The chapter addresses methodological issues and gives an indication of the extent to which particular aspects of the input have been investigated. It ends with a selective evaluation of links between input and bilingual language outcomes and early bilingual acquisition.
This study investigated the changes that occur in mothers’ language and interactions with their preschool-aged children who have language difficulties when a Spanish language-based intervention was provided within their homes. The intervention was provided using toys and routines that existed within their homes. Three Spanish speaking mothers of Mexican descent participated alongside their preschool children in a language-based intervention. The mothers were interviewed before and after the intervention to understand their experiences and perceptions. They were video recorded interacting with their children during play-based events to document language events between the mothers and their child. Study findings demonstrated that mothers changed in their use of language strategies and had positive opinions about the intervention. To build on culturally responsive interventions, specific factors were identified to promote a positive experience when working with Mexican immigrant mothers.
In this chapter, we review the current state of the science with regards to bilingual aphasia. Four important themes emerge from this research. First, bilingual aphasia is an exponentially complex manifestation of a dynamic interaction between age of acquisition, exposure, proficiency, and impairment after brain damage. Second, findings of language coactivation have implications for bilingual aphasia rehabilitation in terms of whether cross language generalization can be expected or not. Third, few studies on bilingual aphasia have begun to examine this notion of domain general versus domain specific language and cognitive control. Finally, there are structural and functional changes in the bilingual brain, and in the case of brain damage, these changes can impact the extent of language impairment and recovery.
