Language Development of Children Based on Parental Affairs

Running Head: LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN BASED ON PARENTAL AFFAIRS 1

Language Development of Children Based on Parental Affairs

Terry Harrington

Alvernia University

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN BASED ON PARENTAL AFFAIRS 2

Thesis

In terms of development, children are influenced in multiple different instances that allow

for them to grow into healthy adults that are able to navigate in a variety of social occurrences.

Starting with the earliest years of development, children observe the way their families interact

with one another and how they engage children in social conversations so they may progress

their use of language and develop an understanding for social patterns. Children often take part

in observational learning for a strong portion of their early development and frequent these

learning methods throughout their lives.

Language plays a significant role in impacting children’s daily lives by encouraging brain

activity in ways such as critical thinking and problem solving skills that allow them to further

develop not only in intellectual aspects, but also in emotional and social facets as well. This

paper will be written with the intent to analyze the language development of children based on

parental interactions and the significance gender role plays in childhood development. It will

detail different communication styles that include verbal aspects such as the use of irony and

daily familial conversations and non-verbal aspects such as physical and emotional expression as

well as passive characteristics like turn-taking.

Hypothesis

Given that language is a part of everyday life and plays a crucial role in communication,

it is safe to assume that language is one of the main beneficiaries in childhood development.

Children’s development of language is influenced most by parental interactions due to the

amount of parent-child contact. To further this hypothesis, in developing a sense of language use,


children are more likely to use their developed speech patterns when socially interacting with

their peers and others that are outside of their family.

Method

Through observations of research conducted previously, comparisons will be made in

order to determine how significant of an impact parental interactions are on children in regards to

speech and language development through gender roles. As stated previously, information will

be taken from articles based on parent-child interactions and a variety of different

communication styles that take place between them. The subjects that are listed in the articles

range from different cultures such as Hispanic backgrounds that reside in the United States like

Dominican and Mexican and other American cultures. Most of the children observed in this

collection of articles that will be referenced ranged from the ages of 14 months to 60 months

with the exception of Recchia, Howe, Ross, & Alexander (2010) whose subjects were around the

ages of 6 to 10 years old. By comparing all of the results of these articles, it will prove the

hypothesis of this paper by demonstrating that children will model their communication patterns

used in the family setting and among peers after their parents starting at a young age and

continuing onward into later childhood years.

Research

In basic psychology, theories demonstrate that children learn in several different ways.

One of the big theories is the Nature versus Nurture debate where children learn different matters

either from those around them or have basic knowledge and understanding due to predetermined

biological means. For purposes of this article, the larger part of the observations will come from


the nurture aspect in terms of imaging by observing and learning through the environment that is

around them.

The article Language Experiences and Vocabulary Development in Dominican and

Mexican Infants Across the First 2 Years starts off with “The bioecological model of

development asserts that development is embedded in a nested system of social contexts” (Song,

Tamis-LeMonda, Hirokazu, Kahana-Kalman, & Wu, 2012, p. 1106). Infants and children learn

through different experiences, especially in the environments they are most acquainted with

down to the sociological factors they are least associated with. This being said, Song et al. were

able to deduce that being in the home setting is considerably the most influential environment for

infants and children to learn in. The constant interactions with family members build the

fundamental basis for speech patterns in children.

Song et al.’s research focuses primarily on the language development of children in terms

of multicultural settings: The “language experience” that Latino children undergo, especially in

regard to Dominican- and Mexican- Americans, can be quite different due to the languages that

they experience in their households (Song, et al., 2012). Song et al. state that parents are the main

contributors to early language development as reported by Latino bilingual 25-month-olds in a

study (p. 1107). However, Song et al.’s data focused primarily on infants and children around the

ages of 14- and 24- months-old among 155 families, most in which were observed at both ages.

According to a census report in New York City from 2005 used in the article, those of Mexican

heritage seem to only be of the most recent immigrant group and those of a Dominican

background have been around much longer. Approximately 56.8% of the Mexican population

reported they speak English only, very well, or well whereas Dominicans have a higher

percentage of 67.4%. From one generation to the next, the rate at which the English language


becomes more prevalent in Hispanic-American cultures has grown due to more interactions with

the English language.

Straying away from the population statistics, there are is data on mother-infant

interactions that show a more obvious difference between the Dominican and Mexican cultures.

A videotaped study indicated that mother-infant interactions among Dominican and Mexican

mothers did not differ much in overall talkativeness when it came to both age groups (Song et

al., 2012, p. 1114). As it would show, Spanish was spoken more often than English by the

mothers of both cultures as a whole. Dominican mothers had more English utterances whereas

Mexican mothers produced more Spanish utterances. With the use of both English and Spanish

utterances in Dominican and Mexican households, infants’ vocabulary was positively influenced

due to the use of both languages from the mother. Mothers can do much more than just increase

a child’s vocabulary, however.

Outside of culture and the ability to speak different languages, mothers also speak in way

that teaches young children to be able to speak of themselves. Roger, Rinaldi, & Howe found

that mothers who talk about internal states of being much like emotions were able to passively

teach children about labelling emotions as well as develop a better understanding of how

emotions can be connected to certain social situations (2012). While studying the children,

evidence was developed that the more mothers would inquire or talk about emotions, the more

likely preschool children would use emotional words in explanations. Positive attitudes that

came from mothers became one of the strongest predictors to help indicate a child’s emotional

knowledge, especially around the age of 3. Fathers, on the other hand, had a different impact on

children as they were more concrete based; The use of explanations of desires were more


dominant in a father-child conversation which predicted outcomes of children while taking false-

belief oriented tasks (p. 648).

Roger, Rinaldi, & Howe conducted their study on 57 children and their parents in Canada

to assess outcomes based on internal state language (ISL), an indicator of children’s social

understanding (2012, p. 650, 653-655). Two tables used by Roger, Rinaldi, & Howe, referred to

as “Table 2” and “Table 3,” describe some of the statistical findings of the ISL system. The

results demonstrate that there is a correlation with children’s ISL due to their age and

understanding of certain categories, e.g. beliefs and emotions, whereas the parents’ ISL did not

change but as a whole, children’s social skills increased. There was also no correlation between

the amount of the parents’ education nor with the children’s attendance in preschools or day

cares. Interestingly, girls used the same amount of ISL with mothers as they did fathers but their

male counterparts used significantly more ISL with mothers than their fathers yet both mothers

and fathers used more ISL with their sons than they did daughters.

Being able to speak with regards to emotional state is extremely important, especially

when trying to relate to others during conversation. Not all dialogues will include strict

emotional stand points but it does build up to being able to communicate in a social manner.

According to Black & Logan, effective communication skills and their importance for

“successful social interaction” has been studied longer than the relationships between peer

communication and social acceptance (1995, p. 255). It takes more than the understanding of

emotional utterances to uphold certain social standards set by others; The abilities to clearly

direct an initiation to a listener, take turns in sharing relevant information, and being able to

respond to peers has been found to gain social acceptance in preschool age children. Black &


Logan observed 43 children of different social status between the ages of 24 months to 60

months and their conversations with their parents in order to obtain their data.

The social statuses that were marked to the children were based on popularity (Black &

Logan, 1995, p. 260). Children who were considered a part of the rejected status or the least

popular group were more often led through conversations than those who were more popular.

Along with this, children who were of rejected or “controversial” status had higher occurrences

of total conversation with their mothers. Both of these reports summated to the observation that

children were more likely to use unrelated turn-taking skills with their mothers yet were more

comfortable with making requests to their father.

As an overall find, Black & Logan found that conversational patterns children used were

directly linked to the way their parents communicated (1995, p. 267). Black & Logan’s study

demonstrated that children often used similar speech patterns when talking to peers as they

would their family through the parent-child and child-parent interactions that were observed.

Parents of children who fell into the rejected status were noted as having poor turn-taking skills

and often made irrelevant requests while in the midst of conversation. Children followed in the

footsteps of their parents by demonstrating the same social skills. Likewise can be reported about

children and parents who were of higher social standing: Both children and parents were less

likely to take lengthy turns, less often took the initiative in cohesive discourse, and were more

likely to participate in turn-taking. Stepping outside of the younger age range of 14 to 60 months,

the next article will observe some of the outcomes of children as they reach an older age range

and the conversational influences they experience that shape their overall speech patterns.

As children reach older ages, they begin to learn new things in a multitude of new ways

and often take a different approach in obtaining more knowledge. The brain becomes more


developed and can be said to have new windows of opportunity which allow for further

development. Recchia, Howe, Ross, & Alexander (2010) conducted research on the production

of different forms of verbal irony in the family setting with children between the ages of 6 and 10

years of age from 39 different families. Irony is described in terms of a non-literal language

where the literal and intended meanings are different and broken down into four main

components: sarcasm, hyperbole, understatement, and rhetorical questions.

Observations from Recchia, Howe, Ross, & Alexander (2010) showed that mothers and

fathers that interacted with the children used verbal irony in different forms. For example,

mothers are described as more “managerial” and didactic when interacting with children and use

ironic language as an indirect form of discipline. Fathers relied on ironic language in more

playful ways in order to encourage positive interactions. Although it is often expected for fathers

to use irony more than mothers due to gender stereotypes, Recchia et al. found that out of the 39

families examined with at least four members in the household, mothers (38) used ironic

language more than fathers (26).

With enough ironic language used in a household, it was found that several children

between first and third grade were able to differentiate sarcasm from mistakes and lies (Recchia,

et al., 2010). It was determined that children were able to recognize incongruent statements

within context before having the ability to distinguish mistakes, lies, and irony in conversation

around the age of 8 while the capability of understanding the use of irony came around the age of

10. A correlation was found that fathers and children were more oft to use ironic language in

positive contexts than in negative while mothers were found to use irony in positive and negative

contexts just as equally.


Results

Established links between parents and children were analyzed in context of establishing

speech patterns and developing conversational skills throughout early childhood ages into older

childhood ages. Connections were revealed through conversations held by parents and children

that reflected on the children’s speech patterns toward not only the family setting, but among

their peers as well. While determining what parents’ roles play effect into the development of

children’s speech patterns, gender stereotypes were also observed in a way that allowed for some

expectations to be dispelled.

As it shows, both parents play significant roles in influencing speech patterns and

language development in multiple ways. Bi-lingual cultures show correlations in which one

dialect spoken negatively effects the utterances of the other language while the use of emotional

language passively governs the way children are able to interact with each other (Song, et al.,

2012; Roger, et al., 2012). However, emotional context was not all that was required in

development; children being able to participate in relevant turn-taking conversations were

provided with better opportunities in gaining better social reliability in terms of conversational

context (Black & Logan, 1995). Straying from the younger ages, children observed at an older

age were found to understand and even use certain forms of verbal irony as they became older

with data that demonstrated there was a direct link that determined how children used ironic

language based on the way their parents used it (Recchia, et al., 2010).

In terms of social status, children who were more understanding of different contextual

conversations based on emotional and intellectual states often received higher approval ratings

from peers and had higher social standings amongst peer groups (Roger, et al., 2012; Black &

Logan, 1995). Based on understanding and relating as well as having proper conversational


skills, e.g. turn-taking, children were more accepted into groups than those who demonstrated

incongruent and irrelevant conversation flow. The way parents spoke correlated to children’s

interaction styles indicated by their abilities to hold relevant and coherent conversations as well

as their use of figurative language in terms of irony and sarcasm (Black & Logan, 1995; Recchia,

et al., 2010). The thought that fathers use more ironic language than mothers was also dispelled

in the fact that mothers used it more frequently.

Conclusion

With the combined information observed through all of the previously mentioned

research along with the extra connections made through the interpretations of each research, the

hypothesis that parents play a significant role in the development of children. As Black & Logan

observed as well as the other researchers, speech patterns that children use in conversations with

their parents were also observed to be similar to ones they used with their peers while in the

academic setting (1995, p. 267). Research shows that language development starts at a young age

and stems from multiple standpoints such as a culture, social settings, and emotional and logical

interactions between parents and children. Intellectual levels of children were not taken into

account but would prove further evidence as to how parents influence language growth in

children, especially at young ages.


References

Black, B., & Logan, A. (1995). Links between communication patterns in mother-child, father-

child, and child-peer interactions and children’s social status. Child Development, 66(1),

255-271. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8246.1995.tb00869

Recchia, H. E., Howe, N., Ross, H. S., & Alexander, S. (2010). Children’s understanding and

production of verbal irony in family conversations. British Journal of Developmental

Psychology, 28(2), 255-274. doi:10.1348/026151008X401903

Roger, K. M., Rinaldi, C. M., & Howe, N. (2012). Mothers’ and fathers’ internal state language

with their young children: An examination of gender differences during an emotions task.

Infant & Child Development, 21(6), 646-666. doi:10.1002/icd.1762

Song, L., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Hirokazu, Y., Kahana-Kalman, R., & Wu, I. (2012). Language

experiences and vocabulary development in Dominican and Mexican infants across the

first 2 years. Developmental Psychology, 48(4), 1106-1123. doi:10.1037/a0026401

Language Development of Children Based on Parental Affairs

Documents

Transcript of Language Development of Children Based on Parental Affairs