The Impact of Household Size on Lexical Typicality: An Early Link Between Language and Social Cognition?

Mayor, Julien; Arias‐Trejo, Natalia; Alva, Elda Alicia

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01445

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…For rural children, more siblings also correlated to a smaller number of adult words overheard in the household, as well as a smaller number of adult–child conversations, while for peri‐urban children, more siblings correlated to fewer child vocalizations. These findings reflect previous research that has shown that children with more siblings have lower levels of both word production and comprehension (Mayor et al., 2018). Finally, dividing households according to who acted as the primary caregiver, we found that households in which the grandmother was the primary caregiver had significantly higher AWC and CTC (but not CDI) than those in which the mother was the primary caregiver (Table S5).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Household wealth (asset index) has been shown to be associated with ECD as well (Gilkerson et al., 2018; Yue et al., 2017). Finally, the number of adults and siblings in the household was collected because previous studies suggest that household size is an influential factor in the HLE and language development (Mayor et al., 2018; McCartney, 1984).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Associations between urbanization and the home language environment: Evidence from a LENA study in rural and peri‐urban China

Ma,

Zhang,

Pappas

et al. 2023

Child Development

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In low‐ and middle‐income countries, urbanization has spurred the expansion of peri‐urban communities, or urban communities of formerly rural residents with low socioeconomic status. The growth of these communities offers researchers an opportunity to measure the associations between the level of urbanization and the home language environment (HLE) among otherwise similar populations. Data were collected in 2019 using Language Environment Analysis observational assessment technology from 158 peri‐urban and rural households with Han Chinese children (92 males, 66 females) aged 18–24 months in China. Peri‐urban children scored lower than rural children in measures of the HLE and language development. In both samples, child age, gender, maternal employment, and sibling number were positively correlated with the HLE, which was in turn correlated with language development.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations between urbanization and the home language environment: Evidence from a LENA study in rural and peri‐urban China

Ma,

Zhang,

Pappas

et al. 2023

Child Development

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“…To measure the value of household assets, we created a family asset index for all households using polychoric principal components analysis based on whether the family owned or had access to running water, a toilet, a water heater, a washing machine, a computer, Internet access, a refrigerator, air conditioning, a motorcycle, and a car/truck [ 43 ]. Additionally, we collected data on the number of siblings and adults in the household, as it has been suggested that household size is an influential factor in the home language environment and language development [ 44 , 45 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variations in the Home Language Environment and Early Language Development in Rural China

Jonsson

Feng

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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The home language environment is critical to early language development and subsequent skills. However, few studies have quantitatively measured the home language environment in low-income, developing settings. This study explores variations in the home language environment and child language skills among households in poor rural villages in northwestern China. Audio recordings were collected for 38 children aged 20–28 months and analyzed using Language Environment Analysis (LENA) software; language skills were measured using the MacArthur–Bates Mandarin Communicative Developmental Inventories expressive vocabulary scale. The results revealed large variability in both child language skills and home language environment measures (adult words, conversational turns, and child vocalizations) with 5- to 6-fold differences between the highest and lowest scores. Despite variation, however, the average number of adult words and conversational turns were lower than found among urban Chinese children. Correlation analyses did not identify significant correlations between demographic characteristics and the home language environment. However, the results do indicate significant correlations between the home language environment and child language skills, with conversational turns showing the strongest correlation. The results point to a need for further research on language engagement and ways to increase parent–child interactions to improve early language development among young children in rural China.

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“…Identity of the primary caregiver was collected because previous research has shown that about one-third of primary caregivers of young children in rural China are actually grandmothers, not mothers, and that caregiver type affects early childhood development outcomes [9]. Finally, the numbers of adults and siblings in the household were collected as it has been suggested that household size is an influential factor in the home language environment and language development [69,70].…”

Section: Demographic Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The home language environment in rural China: variations across family characteristics

Ma¹,

Jonsson²,

Yao

et al. 2023

BMC Public Health

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Background A rich language environment is an important element of a nurturing home environment. Despite their proven importance, vocabulary and conversation have been shown to vary widely across households—even within the same socio-economic class. One significant gap in the existing literature is its nearly exclusive geographic focus on Western and developed settings, with little attention given to poorer communities in lower/middle income countries. The purpose of this study was to empirically illustrate the characteristics of the home language environment in the low SES, non-Western cultural setting of rural China. Methods Using Language Environment Analysis (LENA) automated language-analysis system, this study measured the home language environment of 38 children aged 20-27 months in Northwest rural China. Our primary measures of the home language environment were Adult Word Count (AWC), Conversational Turn Count (CTC) and Child Vocalization Count (CVC). Multivariate linear regression models were used to examine the association between home language environment and family/child characteristics, and language skills (Measured by MacArthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory score). Results In this paper, by comparison, we found that the home language environment of our rural sample fell far behind that of urban households. We also identify significant, positive correlations between language skills and both AWC and CTC. Our analysis finds no significant correlations between home language environment and family/child characteristics. Conclusion In this paper, we present the first ever findings using the LENA system to measure the home language environment of young children from poor rural communities in China. We found that the home language environment of lower-SES household was significantly worse than high-SES households, and demonstrated the importance of the home language environment to language skills, pointing to a need for more high-quality studies of the home language environment in rural China to better understand possible mechanisms behind low levels of parent-child language engagement and ways to improve the home language environment.

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The Impact of Household Size on Lexical Typicality: An Early Link Between Language and Social Cognition?

Cited by 10 publications

References 29 publications

Associations between urbanization and the home language environment: Evidence from a LENA study in rural and peri‐urban China

Associations between urbanization and the home language environment: Evidence from a LENA study in rural and peri‐urban China

Variations in the Home Language Environment and Early Language Development in Rural China

The home language environment in rural China: variations across family characteristics

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