Meredith L. Rowe|Barbara Alexander Pan|Catherine Ayoub
Predictors of Variation in Maternal Talk to Children: A Longitudinal Study of Low-Income Families
objective goals study 1 examine extent variation amount lexical diversity maternal talk young children within sample lowincome families 2 determine patterns change time maternal talk early childhood years 3 consider specific predictors variation maternal communicative input design lowincome mother child dyads n 108 videotaped child ages 14 24 36 months semistructured play home videotapes transcribed analyzed using conventions child language data exchange system determine amount word tokens lexical diversity word types maternal talk children background information collected mothers study entry served predictors variation communicative input individual growth modeling methods used analyze data results mothers varied greatly number tokens types produced interaction mothers found increase total amount talk diversity vocabulary children aged addition child age maternal education language literacy skills depression age helped explain variation level maternal talk none predictors explained variation growth different combinations predictors explained variation tokens versus types conclusions findings highlight importance studying specific predictors parental talk children even lowincome samples large variation communicative input evident