Ethnic differences in mother-infant language and gestural communications are associated with specific skills in infants

• Published in: Developmental science Vol. 15; no. 3; pp. 384 - 397
• Main Authors: Tamis-LeMonda, Catherine S., Song, Lulu, Leavell, Ashley Smith, Kahana-Kalman, Ronit, Yoshikawa, Hirokazu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.05.2012; Wiley-Blackwell; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: African Americans; Babies; Child Development; Child Development - physiology; Communication; Cultural Differences; Developmental psychology; Dominican Republic; Ethnicity; Expressive Language; Female; Gestures; Humans; Imitation; Infant; Infants; Interaction; Language Acquisition; Language Development; Latin Americans; Male; Maternal Behavior - physiology; Mexican Americans; Mexico; Mother-Child Relations - ethnology; Mothers; Mothers - psychology; Nonverbal Communication; Parent Child Relationship; Psychology, Child; Racial differences; Receptive Language; Speech Acts; Toddlers; Verbal Behavior - physiology; Verbal Communication; Video Technology; Vocabulary Development; Voice - physiology; Dominican Republic; Mexico
• ISSN: 1363-755X; 1467-7687
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2012.01136.x

We examined gestural and verbal interactions in 226 mother–infant pairs from Mexican, Dominican, and African American backgrounds when infants were 14 months and 2 years of age, and related these interactions to infants’ emerging skills. At both ages, dyads were video‐recorded as they shared a wordless number book, a wordless emotion book, and beads and string. We coded mothers’ and infants’ gestures and language/vocalizations. Each maternal utterance was coded as referential (e.g. ‘That’s a bead’) or regulatory (e.g. ‘Put it there’). Mothers reported on infants’ gestural, receptive, and productive vocabularies at 14 months, and infants were assessed on receptive language, expressive language, and action sequencing and imitation at 2 years of age. Mothers of the three ethnicities differed in their gesturing, distributions of the two types of language, and coupling of language and gestures. Mothers’ ethnicity, language, and gestures were differentially associated with infants’ 2‐year skills. Mother–infant communicative interactions are foundational to infant learning and development, and ethnic differences in modes of early communication portend divergent pathways in the development of specific skills. We examined gestural and verbal interactions in 226 mother–infant pairs from Mexican, Dominican, and African American backgrounds when infants were 14 months and 2 years of age, and related these interactions to infants’ emerging skills. At both ages, dyads were video‐recorded as they shared a wordless number book, a wordless emotion book, and beads and string. We coded mothers’ and infants’ gestures and language / vocalizations. Each maternal utterance was coded as referential (e.g. ‘That’s a bead’) or regulatory (e.g. ‘Put it there’).