Birth to Three: A Parent's Vital Role in a Child's Social Development

Research Finds the Way Parents Talk to Their Babies Matters

In the 1980s, researchers, Betty Hart, and Todd Risley studied children from three types of families professional, working-class, and low-income. Data was taken on the children once a month for two and a half years. The researchers painstakingly recorded every conversation parents had with their children ages 7 months to age 3. When the children turned 3 researchers gave them the Stanford Binet IQ test and then retested the children at age 9 by giving them standardized achievement tests (Arsaga, 2012).

Hart and Risely found that children living in poverty were unable to catch up socially with children raised in more prosperous environments, in spite of the progress these children made while attending Head Start preschool. Their research revealed that these results had everything to do with the way parents conversed with their children ages birth to 3 years old (Arsaga, 2012).

The research revealed that children with “talkative” parents were exposed to 45 million words during their first three years, while children of “taciturn” parents were exposed to only 13 million words—a 30 million word difference. Talkative and taciturn parents existed in all three groups, however, professional parents typically talked to their children much more than the other two groups, and working-class parents talked more to their children than low-income parents (Arsaga, 2012).

'Language Dancing' the Preferred Method of Communication

Professional parents talked to their children in a certain way that significantly impacted their children's intellectual capacities. Researchers called this conversation style Language Dancing. Hart and Risley describe "language dancing as the sort of talking that makes a difference in young children's lives. Not the business talking, "Let's get your pajamas on" or "What do you want for a snack?" But talk about "What if...?" or "I wonder..." Language dancing happens face to face, it is open-ended, it is creative, it chats, thinks out loud, wonders reflects. Television and screens cannot supply this kind of interacting. It is personal and unscripted. For example, it might entail reading a book together aloud and then talking about the book. It might be playing a game with words" (Denton, 2015).

Are You all Business When Communicating with Your Child?

Hart and Risley also found that two types of parent communication styles majorly impact their child. These are called "business talk" and "extra talk." Business talk includes everyday directions parents give to their children. For example, "Get your shoes on," "Pick up your toys," or "Eat your vegetables." 

Extra talk is when a parent and child are having a face-to-face, involved, and friendly conversation. Basically, the parent is treating the child as if they were communicating with another adult. They ask their child questions like "What do you think of...?" "Remember when...?” "What is going to happen…?” and then they sincerely listen to their child's answer.

In the study, all three family types used business talk at the same rates, about 600 words per hour.  Parents that engaged in language dancing or extra talk added 30 million words to their child's vocabulary (Arsaga, 2012).

Accentuate the Positive and Eliminate the Negative

Hart and Risley also found something interesting regarding parent's “Feedback Tone,” the number of encouraging words and discouraging words researchers heard during parent-child conversations. Professional parents gave their children 500,000 encouraging words compared to 80,000 discouraging words while low-income parents gave their children 80,000 encouraging words compared to 200,000 discouraging words (Arsaga, 2012).

One reason low-income parents appear to have more negative conversations with their children is that they use more business talk when communicating with their children. Business talk is naturally more negative or discouraging while extra talk is generally more positive or encouraging. The benefits of extra talk are two-fold, it exposes the child to more words, as well as builds a more positive bond with the parent (Arsaga, 2012).

This research also showed that a child's IQ score at age 3 and standardized test scores at age 9 were significantly correlated with how much extra talk the children heard from parents before age 3. Amazingly, the research suggests that extra words spoken to a child in their first year, before they start to speak, are the most effective (Arsaga, 2012).

Story Time and T.V. Limits

Reading regularly with your child will prepare them significantly for Kindergarten. Hart and Risley’s research clarifies why this is the case. Reading is a variety of language dancing. How does time in front of the T.V. fit into all this?  Since conversations on T.V. are not the same as having a face to face conversation, the words spoken come across as background noise to your child's brain and won’t have the same brain-healthy effects as language dancing. As a result, T.V. shows can never replace extra talk that comes from a real person (Arsaga, 2012).

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that "children younger than 2 avoid digital media other than video chatting. Children ages 2 to 5 shouldn't watch more than one hour of high-quality children's programming per day" (Mullen, 2019).

If you aren't currently reading with your child it's never too late to start. Head over to your nearest library, check out some free books, and schedule a daily storytime with your child. If this is your first time hearing about language dancing, give it a try. It's better to get involved in your child's life a little late than not do it at all.

Read All About It

If you'd like to read more about Hart and Risley's research in-depth check out their book, Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children.

Sources:

Arsaga, A., 2012. What Is 'Language Dancing' And Why Is It Important To Parents?. [online] Parent Cortical Mass. Available at: <https://www.parentcorticalmass.com/2012/04/what-is-language-dancing-and-why-is-it-important-to-parents.html> [Accessed 12 July 2020].

Denton, P., 2015. A Village Called Trinity. Lulu.com, p. 121.

Mullen, C., 2019.How Screen Time Affects Kids' Development. [online] Bizjournals.com. Available at: <https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2019/02/how-screen-time-affects-kids-development.html?page=all> [Accessed 12 July 2020].