The language gap is one of the most widely cited explanations for existing socioeconomic disparit... more The language gap is one of the most widely cited explanations for existing socioeconomic disparities in educational performance. Since Hart and Risley's 1995 publication on the socioeconomic differences in language input among children living in the United States, the language gap has permeated research, education, policy, and public awareness both in the United States and abroad. Since then, critiques have emerged that question the validity of the language gap as a concept and as means to close educational disparities. In this chapter, the authors build upon existing critiques by highlighting the cultural assumptions and ideologies that underpin the language gap and challenging these assumptions by drawing upon cross-cultural research on human development. Future directions are discussed on ways to move research forward using methodology that attends to cultural variability, builds on families' funds of knowledge, and recognizes societal contexts and structures that address systemic inequities.
We examined the functions of mothers' speech to infants during two tasks-book-sharing and bead-st... more We examined the functions of mothers' speech to infants during two tasks-book-sharing and bead-stringing-in low-income, ethnically diverse families. Mexican, Dominican, and African American mothers and their infants were video-recorded sharing wordless books and toy beads in the home when infants were aged 1;2 and 2;0. Mothers' utterances were classified into seven categories (labels/descriptions, emotion/state language, attention directives, action directives, prohibitions, questions, and vocal elicitations) which were grouped into three broad language functions: referential language, regulatory language, and vocalization prompts. Mothers' ethnicity, years of education, years living in the United States, and infant sex and age related to mothers' language functions. Dominican and Mexican mothers were more likely to use regulatory language than were African American mothers, and African American mothers were more likely to use vocalization prompts than were Latina mothers. Vocalization prompts and referential language increased with mothers' education and Latina mothers' years living in the United States. Finally, mothers of boys used more regulatory language than did mothers of girls. Socio-cultural and developmental contexts shape the pragmatics of mothers' language to infants.
Everyday activities are replete with contextual cues for infants to exploit in the service of lea... more Everyday activities are replete with contextual cues for infants to exploit in the service of learning words. Nel-son's (1985) script theory guided the hypothesis that infants participate in a set of predictable activities over the course of a day that provide them with opportunities to hear unique language functions and forms. Mothers and their firstborn 13-month-old infants (N = 40) were video-recorded during everyday activities at home. Transcriptions and coding of mothers' speech to infants—time-locked to activities of feeding, grooming, booksharing, object play, and transition—revealed that the amount, diversity, pragmatic functions, and semantic content of maternal language systematically differed by activity. The activities of everyday life shape language inputs to infants in ways that highlight word meaning.
The word gap, or the language gap, can be traced back to Hart and Risley's 1995 seminal work on l... more The word gap, or the language gap, can be traced back to Hart and Risley's 1995 seminal work on language practices in high-and low-income families, and it is one of the most widely cited explanations for why children from low-income, minority contexts underperform academically in contrast to their white, middle-income counterparts. Despite its widespread influence on research, education and policy, the word gap has been at the centre of vociferous debates in academic circles over whether the word gap is a deficit in language input for infants that should be attended to or a difference in language practices that should be embraced. In this article, I draw on multiple disciplines to highlight the strengths and shortcomings of word gap findings, and I provide future directions for educators, policymakers and researchers seeking to better understand the language experiences of children growing up in low-income contexts from a cultural and contextual perspective.
Infant contingent responsiveness to maternal language and gestures was examined in 190 Mexican Am... more Infant contingent responsiveness to maternal language and gestures was examined in 190 Mexican American, Dominican American, and African American infant–mother dyads when infants were 14 and 24 months. Dyads were video-recorded during book-sharing and play. Videos were coded for the timing of infants' vocalizations and gestures and mothers' referential language (i.e., statements that inform infants about objects and events in the world; e.g., " That's a big doggy! "), regulatory language (i.e., statements that regulate infants' attention or actions; e.g., " Look at that " , " Put it down! "), and gestures. Infants of all three ethnicities responded within 3 sec of mothers' language and gestures, increased their responsiveness over development, and displayed specificity in their responses: They vocalized and gestured following mothers' referential language and gestures , but were less likely than chance to communicate following mothers' regulatory language. At an individual level, responsive infants had responsive mothers. Infants have much to learn on the path to becoming competent communicative partners. They must learn the sounds of their native language and the rules that govern how to combine sounds to form words. They must learn to map words to objects and events in the world, and when and how to use words and gestures to communicate effectively. A key aspect of infant communicative competence is learning how to temporally align vocalizations and gestures with those of other people. The temporal connection in Correspondence should be sent to
Methods can powerfully affect conclusions about infant experiences and learning. Data from natura... more Methods can powerfully affect conclusions about infant experiences and learning. Data from naturalistic observations may paint a very different picture of learning and development from those based on structured tasks, as illustrated in studies of infant walking, object permanence, intention understanding, and so forth. Using language as a model system, we compared the speech of 40 mothers to their 13-month-old infants during structured play and naturalistic home routines. The contrasting methods yielded unique portrayals of infant language experiences, while simultaneously underscoring cross-situational correspondence at an individual level. Infants experienced substantially more total words and different words per minute during structured play than they did during naturalistic routines. Language input during structured play was consistently dense from minute to minute, whereas language during naturalistic routines showed striking fluctuations interspersed with silence. Despite these differences, infants' language experiences during structured play mirrored the peak language interactions infants experienced during naturalistic routines, and correlations between language inputs in the two conditions were strong. The implications of developmental methods for documenting the nature of experiences and individual differences are discussed.
Developmental changes in the questions mothers asked during book-sharing inter- actions with thei... more Developmental changes in the questions mothers asked during book-sharing inter- actions with their preschool children and associations between mothers’ questions and children’s narrative contributions were examined. Children and mothers from eth- nically diverse backgrounds (African American, Dominican and Mexican) were video- recorded sharing the wordless book ‘Frog, Where are You?’ when children were three, four and five years of age. Mothers’ questions were coded as referential (e.g. ‘What’s that?’), story-specific (e.g. ‘Where is the boy looking for the frog?’) and open-ended (e.g. ‘What will happen next?’). Mothers decreased their use of referential questions between the child ages of four and five in both frequency and proportion. Story-specific questions increased in frequency and proportion with increasing child age. Open-ended questions decreased in frequency between the child ages of four and five and did not change in proportion over time. Mothers’ question types related to children’s narrative contri- butions concurrently and over time.
We examined maternal contingent responsiveness to infant object exploration in 190 mother–infant ... more We examined maternal contingent responsiveness to infant object exploration in 190 mother–infant pairs from diverse cultural communities. Dyads were video-recorded during book-sharing and play when infants were 14 mo. Researchers coded the temporal onsets and offsets of infant and mother object exploration and mothers' referential (e.g., “That's a bead”) and regulatory (e.g., “Stop it”) language. The times when infant or mother were neither exploring objects nor communicating were classified as “off task.” Sequential analysis was used to examine whether certain maternal behaviors were more (or less) likely to follow infant object exploration relative to chance, to one another, and to times when infants were off task. Mothers were more likely to explore objects and use referential language in response to infant object exploration than to use regulatory language or be off task, and maternal behaviors were reduced in the context of infants being off task. Additionally, mothers coordinated their object exploration with referential language specifically; thus, mothers' responses to infants were didactic and multimodal. Infant object exploration elicits reciprocal object exploration and informative verbal input from mothers, illustrating the active role infants play in their social experiences.
The language gap is one of the most widely cited explanations for existing socioeconomic disparit... more The language gap is one of the most widely cited explanations for existing socioeconomic disparities in educational performance. Since Hart and Risley's 1995 publication on the socioeconomic differences in language input among children living in the United States, the language gap has permeated research, education, policy, and public awareness both in the United States and abroad. Since then, critiques have emerged that question the validity of the language gap as a concept and as means to close educational disparities. In this chapter, the authors build upon existing critiques by highlighting the cultural assumptions and ideologies that underpin the language gap and challenging these assumptions by drawing upon cross-cultural research on human development. Future directions are discussed on ways to move research forward using methodology that attends to cultural variability, builds on families' funds of knowledge, and recognizes societal contexts and structures that address systemic inequities.
We examined the functions of mothers' speech to infants during two tasks-book-sharing and bead-st... more We examined the functions of mothers' speech to infants during two tasks-book-sharing and bead-stringing-in low-income, ethnically diverse families. Mexican, Dominican, and African American mothers and their infants were video-recorded sharing wordless books and toy beads in the home when infants were aged 1;2 and 2;0. Mothers' utterances were classified into seven categories (labels/descriptions, emotion/state language, attention directives, action directives, prohibitions, questions, and vocal elicitations) which were grouped into three broad language functions: referential language, regulatory language, and vocalization prompts. Mothers' ethnicity, years of education, years living in the United States, and infant sex and age related to mothers' language functions. Dominican and Mexican mothers were more likely to use regulatory language than were African American mothers, and African American mothers were more likely to use vocalization prompts than were Latina mothers. Vocalization prompts and referential language increased with mothers' education and Latina mothers' years living in the United States. Finally, mothers of boys used more regulatory language than did mothers of girls. Socio-cultural and developmental contexts shape the pragmatics of mothers' language to infants.
Everyday activities are replete with contextual cues for infants to exploit in the service of lea... more Everyday activities are replete with contextual cues for infants to exploit in the service of learning words. Nel-son's (1985) script theory guided the hypothesis that infants participate in a set of predictable activities over the course of a day that provide them with opportunities to hear unique language functions and forms. Mothers and their firstborn 13-month-old infants (N = 40) were video-recorded during everyday activities at home. Transcriptions and coding of mothers' speech to infants—time-locked to activities of feeding, grooming, booksharing, object play, and transition—revealed that the amount, diversity, pragmatic functions, and semantic content of maternal language systematically differed by activity. The activities of everyday life shape language inputs to infants in ways that highlight word meaning.
The word gap, or the language gap, can be traced back to Hart and Risley's 1995 seminal work on l... more The word gap, or the language gap, can be traced back to Hart and Risley's 1995 seminal work on language practices in high-and low-income families, and it is one of the most widely cited explanations for why children from low-income, minority contexts underperform academically in contrast to their white, middle-income counterparts. Despite its widespread influence on research, education and policy, the word gap has been at the centre of vociferous debates in academic circles over whether the word gap is a deficit in language input for infants that should be attended to or a difference in language practices that should be embraced. In this article, I draw on multiple disciplines to highlight the strengths and shortcomings of word gap findings, and I provide future directions for educators, policymakers and researchers seeking to better understand the language experiences of children growing up in low-income contexts from a cultural and contextual perspective.
Infant contingent responsiveness to maternal language and gestures was examined in 190 Mexican Am... more Infant contingent responsiveness to maternal language and gestures was examined in 190 Mexican American, Dominican American, and African American infant–mother dyads when infants were 14 and 24 months. Dyads were video-recorded during book-sharing and play. Videos were coded for the timing of infants' vocalizations and gestures and mothers' referential language (i.e., statements that inform infants about objects and events in the world; e.g., " That's a big doggy! "), regulatory language (i.e., statements that regulate infants' attention or actions; e.g., " Look at that " , " Put it down! "), and gestures. Infants of all three ethnicities responded within 3 sec of mothers' language and gestures, increased their responsiveness over development, and displayed specificity in their responses: They vocalized and gestured following mothers' referential language and gestures , but were less likely than chance to communicate following mothers' regulatory language. At an individual level, responsive infants had responsive mothers. Infants have much to learn on the path to becoming competent communicative partners. They must learn the sounds of their native language and the rules that govern how to combine sounds to form words. They must learn to map words to objects and events in the world, and when and how to use words and gestures to communicate effectively. A key aspect of infant communicative competence is learning how to temporally align vocalizations and gestures with those of other people. The temporal connection in Correspondence should be sent to
Methods can powerfully affect conclusions about infant experiences and learning. Data from natura... more Methods can powerfully affect conclusions about infant experiences and learning. Data from naturalistic observations may paint a very different picture of learning and development from those based on structured tasks, as illustrated in studies of infant walking, object permanence, intention understanding, and so forth. Using language as a model system, we compared the speech of 40 mothers to their 13-month-old infants during structured play and naturalistic home routines. The contrasting methods yielded unique portrayals of infant language experiences, while simultaneously underscoring cross-situational correspondence at an individual level. Infants experienced substantially more total words and different words per minute during structured play than they did during naturalistic routines. Language input during structured play was consistently dense from minute to minute, whereas language during naturalistic routines showed striking fluctuations interspersed with silence. Despite these differences, infants' language experiences during structured play mirrored the peak language interactions infants experienced during naturalistic routines, and correlations between language inputs in the two conditions were strong. The implications of developmental methods for documenting the nature of experiences and individual differences are discussed.
Developmental changes in the questions mothers asked during book-sharing inter- actions with thei... more Developmental changes in the questions mothers asked during book-sharing inter- actions with their preschool children and associations between mothers’ questions and children’s narrative contributions were examined. Children and mothers from eth- nically diverse backgrounds (African American, Dominican and Mexican) were video- recorded sharing the wordless book ‘Frog, Where are You?’ when children were three, four and five years of age. Mothers’ questions were coded as referential (e.g. ‘What’s that?’), story-specific (e.g. ‘Where is the boy looking for the frog?’) and open-ended (e.g. ‘What will happen next?’). Mothers decreased their use of referential questions between the child ages of four and five in both frequency and proportion. Story-specific questions increased in frequency and proportion with increasing child age. Open-ended questions decreased in frequency between the child ages of four and five and did not change in proportion over time. Mothers’ question types related to children’s narrative contri- butions concurrently and over time.
We examined maternal contingent responsiveness to infant object exploration in 190 mother–infant ... more We examined maternal contingent responsiveness to infant object exploration in 190 mother–infant pairs from diverse cultural communities. Dyads were video-recorded during book-sharing and play when infants were 14 mo. Researchers coded the temporal onsets and offsets of infant and mother object exploration and mothers' referential (e.g., “That's a bead”) and regulatory (e.g., “Stop it”) language. The times when infant or mother were neither exploring objects nor communicating were classified as “off task.” Sequential analysis was used to examine whether certain maternal behaviors were more (or less) likely to follow infant object exploration relative to chance, to one another, and to times when infants were off task. Mothers were more likely to explore objects and use referential language in response to infant object exploration than to use regulatory language or be off task, and maternal behaviors were reduced in the context of infants being off task. Additionally, mothers coordinated their object exploration with referential language specifically; thus, mothers' responses to infants were didactic and multimodal. Infant object exploration elicits reciprocal object exploration and informative verbal input from mothers, illustrating the active role infants play in their social experiences.
Uploads
Papers by Yana Kuchirko