"Daddy, Mummy! Talk to me!" The relationship between parent to child language input and preschooler's language development : a systematic review

Abstract

Parents are known to play an important role in their child’s language development due to the large amount of time they naturally spend together. However, other factors can also influence a child’s language. The present systematic review aims to analyze the authors’ interpretation of the different influences on child language development, guided by three models. Model A proposes parents to be the main drivers of child’s language, while Model B considers the child to play a greater role. Model C takes on the perspective of a shared factor that affects both parent and child language. A systematic retrieval of the relevant papers were conducted using PubMed and SCOPUS databases. Only studies that included English- speaking, typically developing children, with recorded parent-child communications and measures of child outcomes were included. Using the models, we analyzed the papers across time periods, features of parental input and socioeconomic status (SES). Our findings show that Model A was the most popular interpretation across all factors. Across time periods, though Model B was present from the early years, Model C only emerged in the recent years. Across the different features of parental input, quality is the most studied across the three models. Across SES groups, studies involving Model B or C appear to be more common in the lower SES groups than the higher SES groups.