Assessing Quality Features of Parental Language Used With Toddlers Across Wales Presented by: Nicole Gridley Supervisors: Judy Hutchings Tracey Bywater Christopher Whitaker

Overview Background 3 Objectives of the PhD Methods for Study 1 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 2. Processing Input Green! I recognise this colour. Green! Well done. Clever boy! 2. Processing Quality, amount What colour are you using now? Input

Language Development Timeline 3 Months: Babbling begins Startled at loud noises 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 10 Months: Strings together different syllables i.e. damagaba 2 Months: Cooing 12 Months First word use 18 Months: Understands questions 24 Months: Words can be combined into 2 & 3 word phrases Understands approx 300 words can say 40 words. 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 Language Competency Maternal Depression Poverty Family History Sibling Rank Inadequate Stimulation Emotional Problems Inadequate Opportunities for Child to Communicate

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 Compare the frequency of quality features used within parental language in low and high SES families 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 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 non- flying 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 video- recorded 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 Vocabulary Sentences Valence Turn-Taking Nouns Verbs Modifiers Functors Total Words Total Diff Words Verb Tense 2+ Clauses Declaratives Imperatives Interrogatives Affirmations Prohibitations Initiations Responses Floor-holding Positive Negative Neutral

Total Different Words = 9 (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 Words = 15 Total Different Words = 9 Total Nouns =5 Diff Nouns = 3 Total Verbs = 3 Diff Verbs = 2 Modifiers = 4 Functors = 2 Tense: Past = 0 Present = 3 Future = 0 Discourse Function: Declaratives = 0 Questions = 1 (Wh-) Imperatives = 2 Adjacency Condition: Initiations = 1 Floor-holding = 2 Response = 0

Preliminary Results I Adjacency Condition

Preliminary Results II Discourse Function

Objective of the PhD Compare the frequency of quality features used within parental language in low and high SES families 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 Assess potential mediators of the occurrence of quality features within parental language on children’s overall developmental outcomes & language outcomes

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