Child Vocabulary, Maternal Behavior, and Inhibitory Control Development Among Spanish-Speaking Children

Abstract

Research Findings The roles of child lexical diversity and maternal sensitivity in the development of young children’s inhibitory control were examined in 100 low-income Hispanic Spanish-speaking children. Child communication utterances at age 2½ years were transcribed from 10-min mother–child interactions to quantify lexical diversity. Maternal behavior was rated independently from the interactions. Inhibitory control was measured with a battery of tasks at ages 2½ and 3½. Greater maternal sensitivity was correlated with higher vocabulary at 2½. Greater vocabulary predicted positive growth in child inhibitory control skills from ages 2½ to 3½ in multivariable regression models that controlled for maternal education, family income, the home environment, and mothering quality. Practice or Policy These findings suggest that supporting vocabulary development in low-income Spanish-speaking children is important for the development of inhibitory control skills, an important foundation for school readiness and academic success.

Gender differences in inhibitory control as assessed on simple delay tasks in early childhood: A meta-analysis

“…The second correlation was that between verbal ability and gender. The data for this correlation were provided in 12 of the included studies Blair et al, 2015;Carlson, Mandell, & Williams, 2004;Carlson & Meltzer, 2008;Carlson, Moses, & Claxton, 2004;Chang et al, 2015;Cuevas et al, 2014;Leve et al, 2013;Merz et al, 2016;Obradovic ´et al, 2016;Peredo et al, 2015;Poland et al, 2016). For these studies, the weighted correlation between verbal ability and gender is found to equal .11, reflecting a small female advantage in verbal ability.…”

Effect of bilingualism on infants’ cognitive flexibility

“…Research with monolingual children has shown that language (vocabulary size) and inhibitory control are correlated, in which the higher the vocabulary the better the inhibitory control. Verbal skills have been shown to positively relate to children's self-regulation abilities in early childhood (Fuhs & Day, 2011; Kuhn, Willoughby, Wilbourn, Vernon-Feagans & Blair, 2014; Peredo, Owen, Rojas & Caughy, 2015; Vallotton & Ayoub, 2011). In bilinguals, only the dominant language predicts IC.…”

Parenting quality from observational ratings at age 2: validation from Norwegian and U.S. Samples

“…The ratings have been used in different observational procedures, ranging from unstructured free-play situations to more structured goal-oriented tasks, and lasting from 5 minutes or less to 15 minutes or more (e.g., Maas, Vreeswijk, & van Bakel, 2013;Mills-Koonce et al, 2015;NICHD ECCRN, 2003;Towe-Goodman, Willoughby, Blair, Gustafsson, Mills-Koonce, & Cox, 2014). Various higher-order parenting quality constructs have been derived from these ratings using different approaches, including most typically a priori composites (e.g., Mills-Koonce et al, 2015;NICHD ECCRN, 1999;Peredo, Owen, Rojas, & Caughy, 2015).…”