Why Talk with Children Matters: Clinical Implications of Infant- and Child-Directed Speech Research

Abstract

This article reviews basic features of infant- or child-directed speech, with particular attention to those aspects of the register that have been shown to impact profiles of child language development. It then discusses concerns that arise when describing adult input to children with language delay or disorder, or children at risk for depressed language skills. The article concludes with some recommendations for parent counseling in such cases, as well as methods that speech-language pathologists can use to improve the quality and quantity of language input to language-learning children.

Maternal communicative behaviours and interaction quality as predictors of language development: findings from a community‐based study of slow‐to‐talk toddlers

“…Finally, our finding that interaction quality modified the association between successful directives and poorer receptive language outcomes, whereby the association was strongest in poorly connected dyads whilst not evident in well-connected dyads, has implications for the design of intervention strategies. It supports the idea that interaction quality may form the foundation of future language learning (Hirsh-Pasek et al 2015) and differences in dyadic interaction may create differences in how children use their environmental inputs (Ratner 2013). Coaching caregivers about fostering high-quality interactions might be best integrated throughout all intervention sessions.…”

“…It supports the idea that interaction quality may form the foundation of future language learning (Hirsh‐Pasek et al . ) and differences in dyadic interaction may create differences in how children use their environmental inputs (Ratner ). Coaching caregivers about fostering high‐quality interactions might be best integrated throughout all intervention sessions.…”

“…The final part of this study considered whether the dyadic environment in which communicative behaviours were used modified their association with language scores. As Ratner () proposed, individual differences in adult–child dyadic interactions could ‘create differences in how children best exploit their language environments to learn’ (214). Our findings partially support this.…”

Temporal Synchrony Detection and Associations with Language in Young Children with ASD

“…Infant directed speech is heavily laden with auditory and visual cues that draw attention to the most salient aspects of the communication stream and includes synchronized and exaggerated voice and facial expression (for review, see Ratner, 2013 [ 5 ]). Moreover, there is evidence that caregivers consciously or subconsciously take advantage of temporal synchrony during interactions.…”

Validation of the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system for Dutch

“…The current results suggest that the LENA system can be used to measure the amount of language input but not the amount of child vocalisations and conversational turns within the home language environment of Dutchspeaking families of very young children. Researchers, clinicians and parents should however bear in mind that mainly speech directed to the child and not overheard adult conversations contribute to a child's vocabulary development (Ratner, 2013;Weisleder & Fernald, 2013). The LENA system is currently not able to determine the amount of child-directed versus overheard speech thus the LENA output regarding adult language input should be interpreted with caution.…”