ERIC Number: EJ992529
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Jul
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Language Experiences and Vocabulary Development in Dominican and Mexican Infants across the First 2 Years
Song, Lulu; Tamis-LeMonda, Catherine S.; Yoshikawa, Hirokazu; Kahana-Kalman, Ronit; Wu, Irene
Developmental Psychology, v48 n4 p1106-1123 Jul 2012
We longitudinally investigated parental language context and infants' language experiences in relation to Dominican American and Mexican American infants' vocabularies. Mothers provided information on parental language context, comprising measures of parents' language background (i.e., childhood language) and current language use during interviews at infants' birth. Infants' language experiences were measured at ages 14 months and 2 years through mothers' reports of mothers' and fathers' engagement in English and Spanish literacy activities with infants and mothers' English and Spanish utterances during videotaped mother-infant interactions. Infants' vocabulary development at 14 months and 2 years was examined using standardized vocabulary checklists in English and Spanish. Both parental language context and infants' language experiences predicted infants' vocabularies in each language at both ages. Furthermore, language experiences mediated associations between parental language context and infants' vocabularies. However, the specific mediation mechanisms varied by language. (Contains 4 tables, 6 figures and 2 footnotes.)
Descriptors: Mexican Americans, Latin Americans, Hispanic Americans, Vocabulary Development, Infants, Language Enrichment, Mothers, Literacy, Parent Child Relationship, English, Spanish, Interviews, Longitudinal Studies
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New York
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory; Mullen Scales of Early Learning
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A