Speech and language outcomes in low-SES Spanish-English bilingual preschoolers: the role of maternal education

Abstract

children. Her current research investigates the relation between technology use, school belonging, and academic performance among first generation college students and the relation between parents' and children's home media use and children's sleep, behavior problems, and oral language development. We acknowledge that no financial interest or benefit has arisen from the direct applications of the research presented in this paper.

Maternal Cultural Orientation and Speech Sound Production in Spanish/English Dual Language Preschoolers

“…Similarly, in a large sample of almost 1500 monolingual English-speaking children from Australia (Eadie et al 2015), the prevalence of speech sound disorders was partially predicted by SES and maternal education, and children whose mothers had a college or postgraduate degree were half as likely to have a speech sound disorder compared to children whose mothers had completed less than 12 years of schooling. Montanari et al (2020) further found that children of more educated mothers had higher English consonant accuracy than children of less educated mothers at age 3;6. However, the English speech sound production abilities of both groups of children were no longer different one year later after one year of exposure to English in the preschool setting, and maternal education was not related to children's Spanish phonological accuracy at either age.…”

“…By controlling the language in which mothers received their education, Hoff et al (2018) found that maternal school attainment in English was significantly related to children's English but not to Spanish vocabulary between 30 and 60 months, and maternal level of education in Spanish predicted children's Spanish but not English lexical skills between the same ages. In contrast, all mothers in Montanari et al (2020) were educated in Spanish in Mexico, and therefore, the language in which the mothers had received their education did not explain the differences in English speech and language outcomes between children of more and less educated mothers. Montanari et al (2020) speculated that characteristics other than the language of mothers' schooling may mediate the relationship between general maternal education and children's English abilities.…”

“…In contrast, all mothers in Montanari et al (2020) were educated in Spanish in Mexico, and therefore, the language in which the mothers had received their education did not explain the differences in English speech and language outcomes between children of more and less educated mothers. Montanari et al (2020) speculated that characteristics other than the language of mothers' schooling may mediate the relationship between general maternal education and children's English abilities. As noted by the authors (p. 12), "acculturation, language experiences, and literary practices may differ in homes where mothers have completed more schooling, irrespective of the language in which such schooling has occurred".…”

“…Considerable empirical work has demonstrated that maternal characteristics such as maternal education are strong predictors of language outcomes in young dual language learners. Specifically, a large body of work has shown that maternal education is related to children's phonological, lexical, and grammatical measures throughout development, especially in the societal language, among Spanish-English bilingual children growing up in the U.S. (Bohman et al 2010;De Anda et al 2016;Friend et al 2017;Hammer et al 2012;Hoff et al 2018;Montanari et al 2020;Place and Hoff 2016). For instance, De Anda et al (2016) found that maternal educational attainment was significantly related to the English comprehension and production vocabularies of infants growing up in English-dominant bilingual homes, and these results were replicated by Friend et al (2017) when the same children were tested at 22 months of age.…”

“…In another study, Place and Hoff (2016) also documented positive correlations between maternal education and English comprehension, productive vocabulary, and, additionally, grammatical skills in Spanish-English bilingual children at 30 months of age. Furthermore, in a more recent investigation comparing the speech and language skills of Spanish-English bilingual children whose mothers had completed secondary school vs. children whose mothers had only attended primary school, Montanari et al (2020) found that the children of more educated mothers performed significantly better than children of less educated mothers not only on English lexical and grammatical measures but also on speech sound production at age 3;6 (3 years and 6 months), suggesting that maternal level of schooling affects not only children's language but also speech abilities.…”