Developmental changes in maternal education and minimal exposure effects on vocabulary in English- and Spanish-learning toddlers

Margaret Friend; Stephanie DeAnda; Natalia Arias-Trejo; Diane Poulin-Dubois; Pascal Zesiger

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2017.07.003

Developmental changes in maternal education and minimal exposure effects on vocabulary in English- and Spanish-learning toddlers

J Exp Child Psychol. 2017 Dec:164:250-259. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.07.003. Epub 2017 Aug 5.

Authors

Margaret Friend¹, Stephanie DeAnda², Natalia Arias-Trejo³, Diane Poulin-Dubois⁴, Pascal Zesiger⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182, USA; San Diego State University and University of California, San Diego, Joint Doctoral Program in Language and Communicative Disorders, San Diego, CA 92182, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].
² San Diego State University and University of California, San Diego, Joint Doctoral Program in Language and Communicative Disorders, San Diego, CA 92182, USA.
³ Department of Psychology, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Ciudad Universitaria, Coyoacán, C.P. 04510 Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal, Mexico.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec H4B 1R6, Canada.
⁵ University of Geneva, 1211 Genève 4, Switzerland.

Abstract

The current research follows up on two previous findings: that children with minimal dual-language exposure have smaller receptive vocabularies at 16months of age and that maternal education is a predictor of vocabulary when the dominant language is English but not when it is Spanish. The current study extends this research to 22-month-olds to assess the developmental effects of minimal exposure and maternal education on direct and parent-report measures of vocabulary size. The effects of minimal exposure on vocabulary size are no longer present at 22months of age, whereas maternal education effects remain but only for English speakers.

Keywords: Dual Language Learners; English; Language exposure; Maternal education; Spanish; Vocabulary.

MeSH terms

Child
Child, Preschool
Educational Status*
Female
Humans
Infant
Language Development*
Language*
Learning*
Male
Mothers / statistics & numerical data*
Vocabulary*

Abstract

MeSH terms

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