Transcript Enhancing Parent-Child Language Through Parental Intervention

Assessing
Quality
Features of
Parental
Language
Used With
Toddlers
Across Wales
Presented by: Nicole Gridley
Supervisors: Judy Hutchings
Tracey Bywater
Christopher Whitaker
Overview
 Background
 Language Development
 Language & Poverty
 Wales & Poverty
 3 Objectives of the PhD
 Methods for Study 1
 Preliminary Results for Study 1
News Headlines
Learning Language
3. Output
4.
Labeled
Praise
Green!
I recognise this
colour.
Green! Well
done. Clever
boy!
2. Processing
1. Input
What colour
are you
using now?
Language Development
Timeline
2
Months:
Cooing
12 Months
First word use
3 Months:
Babbling begins
Startled at loud
noises
18 Months:
Understands
questions
4/5 Months:
Babbling consists of single
consonant & vowel
i.e. da/ba
7/8 Months:
Stringing sounds
together into longer
chains i.e. dadada
24 Months:
Words can be combined into 2 & 3 word phrases
Understands approx 300 words can say 40 words.
10 Months:
Strings together
different syllables
i.e. damagaba
36 Months:
Understands 900 words
can speak 200 words
Language Proficiency
 Benefits of language proficiency:
 Academic attainment
 Employment
 Less likely to develop socially disruptive behaviour
Environmental Factors
Maternal Depression
Poverty
•Inadequate
Stimulation
•Emotional Problems
•Inadequate
Opportunities for Child
to Communicate
Language
Competency
Family History
Sibling Rank
Poverty News Headlines
Poverty
Evidence to suggest children living in poverty are at
an increased risk of:
 Behavioural problems
 Developmental delays
 Social & Emotional incompetency
 Language delays
Language & Poverty
 Hart & Risley (1995) – High SES v’s Low SES
High SES parents directed11.000 utterances p/hr to their children
comparative to 700 utterances p/hr for low SES parents
 Stein, et al. (2008)
 High SES predictor of low maternal depression rates, higher
quality care giving & higher child language scores at 10 months
 Care giving style at 10 & 36 months predicted language scores at
36 months
 Noel, Peterson & Jesso (2008) – Stress/ low-SES & Language
Development
 Parenting stress = high child emotion = low vocabulary scores &
narrative length
Poverty in Wales
 Pockets of severe deprivation highlighted across Wales
 32% of children living below the 60% median income level
(Child Poverty Strategy for Wales, Feb, 2011)
 Welsh Government Initiative
 Head Start/ Sure Start/ Flying Start
 Areas highlighted as needing additional resources
 £44 million invested over first two years in targeted Flying
Start areas from 2007 (£2000 per child)
 Access to free literacy
 Additional Health Visitor visits
 Access to parent & baby groups
A further £55 million to be invested in Flying Start from 2012
Objective of the PhD
1. Compare the frequency of quality features used
within parental language in low and high SES
families
2. Measure changes in the frequency of quality
features within a Flying Start population who
received a Parenting intervention

Compare these results to a non-Flying Start sample &
a Flying Start control sample
3. Assess potential mediators of the occurrence of
quality features within parental language on
children’s overall developmental outcomes &
language outcomes
Stage 1 – Baseline Assessment
Participants
Flying Start Participants (N=62)
 RCT (Hutchings, Griffith, Daley, Gridley, Whitaker,
2011)
 Recruited across nine Flying Start Areas in North, South
& Mid Wales
Non-Flying Start Participants (N=14)
 Recruited from Nurseries/Adverts/Flyers in targeted nonflying Start areas
All:
 Consented to being video-taped during observations
 Had data available for the baseline assessment & at a 6-month
follow-up
 Child was aged between one and three years old at baseline
Participants
Low SES (n = 35)
High SES (n = 40)
Mean age Mother (Yrs)
31.37 (7.22)
30.20 (6.43)
Mean age Child (Mths)
24.71 (6.28)
22.05 (6.56)
Gender of Child (M:F)
4:3
3:2
Procedure
Home Visits (2 hour visits)
Parent Interview – Personal Data Health Questionnaire (PDHQ:
Hutchings, 1995)
Child Developmental Assessment – Schedule of Growing
Skills II (SGS: Bellman & Ackett, 2007)
Parent-Child Free-Play Video-taped Observation (30-minutes)
Transcription & Coding
Hand-typed transcriptions from the final 15-minutes of videorecorded observations.
Coded according to Hart & Risley (1995) ‘Quality Features’
20% of transcripts independently checked & coded by second
researcher
Defining ‘Quality’
Definition
An essential or distinctive characteristic, property,
or attribute. A characteristic, innate or acquired,
that, in some particular, determines the nature and
behavior of a person or thing
Defining ‘Quality’:
Hart & Risley, 1995
Nouns
Verbs
Modifiers
Functors
Total Words
Total Diff
Words
Initiations
Responses
Floor-holding
Vocabulary
Sentences
TurnTaking
Valence
Verb Tense
2+ Clauses
Declaratives
Imperatives
Interrogatives
Affirmations
Prohibitations
Positive
Negative
Neutral
(05:23)P: Where (Adverb) is (verb) your (pronoun) nose (noun)?
(05:25)P: Dylan (not coded) come (noun) here (adverb) please (adverb)
(05:27)P: Come (noun) show (verb) mummy (noun) where (adverb)
your (pronoun) nose (noun) is (verb).
Valence = Neutral
Total Nouns =5
Diff Nouns = 3
Total Verbs = 3
Diff Verbs = 2
Modifiers = 4
Functors = 2
Discourse Function:
Declaratives = 0
Questions = 1 (Wh-)
Imperatives = 2
Total Words = 15
Total Different Words = 9
Tense:
Past = 0
Present = 3
Future = 0
Adjacency Condition:
Initiations = 1
Floor-holding = 2
Response = 0
Preliminary Results I
Adjacency Condition
140
120
100
80
High SES
Low SES
60
40
20
0
Parent Initiate
Parent Response Parent Floorhold
Child Inititate
Child Response
Child Floorhold
Preliminary Results II
Discourse Function
80
70
60
50
High SES
40
Low SES
30
20
10
0
Declaratives
Imperatives
Wh-Questions Y/N Questions Aux Questions Alt Questions
Affirmations
Prohibitations
Objective of the PhD
1. Compare the frequency of quality features used
within parental language in low and high SES
families
2. Measure changes in the frequency of quality
features within a Flying Start population who
received a Parenting intervention

Compare these results to a non-Flying Start sample &
a Flying Start control sample
3. Assess potential mediators of the occurrence of
quality features within parental language on
children’s overall developmental outcomes &
language outcomes
Thank You For Listening
Any Questions?