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Well-educated mothers and fathers influence language development in their young toddlers (1 to 2 years old) differently, even though they read to the children in broadly similar ways.<\/p>\n
Austrian researchers who study language development in infancy worked with 100 mother-father-child families, separately observing how the mother and father read the same book to their toddlers. They identified and measured five modes of parental behaviour during a 5\u00bd minute parent-child interactive session with a farm animal picture book:<\/p>\n
The first difference the researchers found involved a link that was found for fathers but not for mothers between more \u201crepeating\/imitating\u201d and the child\u2019s subsequent ability to express words. Why this difference in language development occurs needs further exploration. But the researchers postulate that fathers may tend to interact more playfully with their children, aiming to evoke a reply by repeating and imitating, whilst mothers tend to use repeating and imitating indirectly to correct the child\u2019s utterances, in ways that do not require a verbal response from the child.<\/p>\n
Conversely, when mothers do more \u201cinquiring\/clarifying\u201d, children show enhanced language development. But when fathers do the same thing, their children are likely to show less<\/em> ability to comprehend. The researchers postulate that mothers may be more likely to follow their children\u2019s lead rather than challenge their limits, resulting in more improvement in the children\u2019s comprehension.<\/p>\n When mothers do more \u201cpointing\/labelling\u201d, children\u2019s language development proceeds more strongly, but there is no such link for fathers. The researchers postulate that fathers may tend to do this activity more quickly\u2014perhaps too quickly for the children properly to comprehend what is being pointed out or labelled.<\/p>\n The researchers also looked at factors that influenced how the mothers and fathers communicated with their toddlers during the reading activity. They measured the parent-child attachment security for each parent-child pair as well as the educational status of each parent. Again, they found significant differences between mothers and fathers.<\/p>\n The father\u2019s education influences children\u2019s language development in a way that mother\u2019s education does not, suggesting a social influence on fathers\u2019 parenting that is different from mothers\u2019. If a father has college\/university education:<\/p>\n Mothers\u2019 education does not influence their interaction with their children in these ways. For mothers, the interaction seems to be driven more by the attachment relationship with their children. The quality of mother-toddler attachment is associated with more expanding\/elaborating, pointing\/labelling and inquiring\/clarifying on the mothers\u2019 part. This does not hold for fathers. Mothers and fathers are similar, however, in that stronger attachment is linked to a greater extent<\/em> of reading with a child and stronger development of language comprehension.<\/p>\n This is one of the first studies that has attempted to disentangle the influences of mothers and fathers on language development in infancy and to measure fathers\u2019 influence separately from mothers\u2019.<\/p>\n Asked by the Child & Family Blog about the practical implications of their study for infant language development, the researchers suggested that parents should see one-to-one reading with a young child<\/a> more as a relationship experience than a teaching one. It\u2019s important to respond to children\u2019s contributions during reading by picking up their ideas and either reacting in a playful way to evoke a verbal response or more gently to build comprehension.<\/p>\n\n