Exploring the association of infant receptive language and pitch variability in fathers’ infant-directed speech

Quigley, Jean; Nixon, Elizabeth; Lawson, Sarah K.

doi:10.1017/s0305000919000175

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…For example, a recent study with 50 Irish-English speaking father-child dyads found that fathers' pitch variability is associated with children's receptive vocabulary, independent of child age, gender, and expressive language ability (Quigley et al, 2019). In the domain of lexical semantics, Majorano et al (2013) reported that Italian fathers' IDS noun frequency during free play at age two was significantly associated with their children's language production and comprehension at age three.…”

Section: Why Should We Study Paternal Ids?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Fathers' infant‐directed speech and its effects on child language development

Ramírez

2022

Language and Linguist. Compass

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Infant-directed speech (IDS), a speaking style distinguished by its higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation, has been documented in speech directed towards infants across many cultures and languages. Previous research shows that IDS in the context of parent-infant interactions is associated with advances in children's language learning. While we have long known that fathers, like mothers, produce IDS, most research on IDS to this day has focussed exclusively on female (maternal) speech. In light of the recent societal changes which have increased fathers' time spent in handson activities with children, I argue that the research on IDS needs to move away from using the maternal template. I first describe why IDS plays a central role in language development. I then outline known similarities and differences between paternal and maternal IDS, and point to potential biases and challenges within the research that has been conducted so far. Finally, I outline why investigators should strive to include fathers in research on IDS, and conclude with recommendations for follow-up work that can help advance our understanding of fathers' contributions to children's linguistic development.

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Section: Why Should We Study Paternal Ids?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Fathers' infant‐directed speech and its effects on child language development

Ramírez

2022

Language and Linguist. Compass

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“…Despite parentese formerly being called motherese, fathers produce parentese cross-linguistically (Broesch & Bryant, 2018;Quigley et al, 2019; see also Saint-Georges et al, 2013), though they exhibit some prosodic differences from mothers (Fernald et al, 1989;Gergely et al, 2017;Warren-Leubecker & Bohannon, 1984). Nevertheless, the majority of the work on associations between parentese and child language has either not distinguished maternal and paternal parentese in their analyses (e.g., Ferjan Ramírez et al, 2018Ramírez et al, , 2020Ramírez-Esparza et al, 2014, 2017a, 2017b or has focused exclusively on mothers (e.g., Kuhl et al, 1997;Liu et al, 2003).…”

Section: Daylong Audio Recordingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Chatty Are Daddies? An Exploratory Study of Infants' Language Environments

Shapiro

Hippe

Ramírez

2021

J Speech Lang Hear Res

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Purpose Fathers play a critical but underresearched role in their children's cognitive and linguistic development. Focusing on two-parent families with a mother and a father, the present longitudinal study explores the amount of paternal input infants hear during the first 2 years of life, how this input changes over time, and how it relates to child volubility. We devote special attention to parentese, a near-universal style of infant-directed speech, distinguished by its higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation. Method We examined the daylong recordings of the same 23 infants at ages 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months, given English-speaking families. The infants were recorded in the presence of their parents (mother–father dyads), who were predominantly White and ranged from mid to high socioeconomic status (SES). We analyzed the effects of parent gender and child age on adult word counts and parentese, as well as the effects of maternal and paternal word counts and parentese on child vocalizations. Results On average, the infants were exposed to 46.8% fewer words and 51.9% less parentese from fathers than from mothers, even though paternal parentese grew at a 2.8-times faster rate as the infants aged. An asymmetry emerged where maternal word counts and paternal parentese predicted child vocalizations, but paternal word counts and maternal parentese did not. Conclusions While infants may hear less input from their fathers than their mothers in predominantly White, mid-to-high SES, English-speaking households, paternal parentese still plays a unique role in their linguistic development. Future research on sources of variability in child language outcomes should thus control for parental differences since parents' language can differ substantially and differentially predict child language.

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“…Both maternal and paternal vocalisation behaviours are important for a range of offspring outcomes, including language (16,17), socio-emotional and cognitive development (16,18,19). For instance, frequency of maternal vocalisation has been found to be positively associated with cognitive development and educational attainment (20,21) and negatively associated with childhood psychopathology (22).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Maternal and paternal depressive symptoms and parental vocalisation behaviours in infancy: findings from UK-based birth cohort

Campbell

Costantini

Cordero³

et al. 2023

Front. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry

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BackgroundBoth maternal and paternal postnatal depression (PND) are associated with increased risk of less optimal offspring developmental outcomes. Early exposure to differences in maternal and paternal vocalisation behaviours associated with maternal and paternal PND may be important in this relationship. However, little research has captured vocalisation patterns at home without researchers present.ObjectivesThis study sought to examine the associations between maternal and paternal PND and various aspects of parental vocalisation behaviours.MethodsMothers (n = 104) and fathers (n = 34) of six-months old infants from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children Generation-2 (ALSPAC-G2) provided video footage of mother- and father-infant interactions filmed at home using the head-worn video cameras (headcams) without the need for researchers to be present. Twenty-five mother-infant and father-infant interactions were coded on multiple aspects of parental and infant vocalisation behaviours using the micro-behavioural observational coding system. Parental (PND) was measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS; total score).ResultsFrequencies and duration of vocalisation behaviours were similar in mothers and fathers. However, there was an indication that fathers demonstrated higher frequency and duration of commands, exclamations and ironic/sarcastic tone, and criticisms compared to mothers, while mothers engaged in more teaching compared to fathers. Linear regression models indicated that maternal and paternal PND were not associated with the majority of vocalisation behaviours. However, there were some specific patterns observed, mostly related to the emotional tone of the vocalisations. Higher levels of maternal PND were associated with lower frequency of speech in a neutral tone, frequency and duration of use of humour, and increased duration of speech in a positive tone. Higher levels of paternal PND were associated with higher mean duration of speech, infant-directed speech, higher frequency and duration of laughing, and increased duration of speech using questions and encouragement.ConclusionThese findings extend existing research by investigating the associations between maternal and paternal PND and a wide range of vocalisation behaviours captured and coded using innovative methods and in a more ecologically valid way than previous studies.

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Exploring the association of infant receptive language and pitch variability in fathers’ infant-directed speech

Cited by 6 publications

References 38 publications

Fathers' infant‐directed speech and its effects on child language development

Fathers' infant‐directed speech and its effects on child language development

How Chatty Are Daddies? An Exploratory Study of Infants' Language Environments

Maternal and paternal depressive symptoms and parental vocalisation behaviours in infancy: findings from UK-based birth cohort

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