Father, mother, and toddler spatial talk in a favorite activity: Associations with gender, dominant language, and activity choice

• Published in: Cognitive development Vol. 75; p. 101586
• Main Authors: Swirbul, Mackenzie S., Silver, Alex M., Libertus, Melissa E., Tamis-LeMonda, Catherine S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.07.2025
• Subjects: Early math; Fathers; Spatial activities; Spatial language; Toddlers; Fathers; Toddlers; Early math; Spatial language; Spatial activities
• ISSN: 0885-2014
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2025.101586

Everyday activities—building block towers, setting the table, getting dressed—offer numerous opportunities for toddlers to learn about spatial concepts. As parents jointly engage in such activities with their toddlers and use spatial language, they support toddlers’ spatial cognition. We video-recorded U.S. English- and Spanish-speaking fathers, mothers, and toddlers (28 girls, 27 boys; ages 24–36 months) during a ‘favorite activity’ at home. We characterized fathers’ and mothers’ use of spatial language (i.e., spatial relations, spatial features, magnitudes/comparisons, and spatial verbs), classified parent-toddler pairs’ activity choice as spatial vs. nonspatial, and tested whether activity choice related to parents’ use of spatial language. Spatial words were frequent, and individual parents varied substantially. Overall amount of spatial talk did not differ by parents’ dominant language, parent gender, or child gender. However, specific types of spatial talk varied by dominant language, and fathers and mothers provided their toddlers with unique spatial words. Parent-toddler pairs selected a wide variety of favorite activities, with approximately half classified as spatial. Although activity choice (i.e., spatial vs. nonspatial) did not relate to parent or child gender separately, exploratory analyses revealed a trend-level effect showing that twice as many father-boy as mother-girl pairs engaged in spatial activities. Most centrally, fathers who engaged in spatial activities with their toddlers produced more spatial talk than did fathers who engaged in nonspatial activities; mothers’ choice of activity (spatial or not) did not relate to their spatial language use. •We examined English- and Spanish-speaking father/mother spatial talk to toddlers.•Parents’ spatial talk was frequent, regardless of parent/child gender or language.•Specific types of spatial talk (e.g., deictics) varied by dominant language.•Activity choice (spatial vs. not) related to spatial talk for fathers, not mothers.•Fathers and mothers used unique spatial words, enriching toddlers' input.