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How does parental engagement impact language development in early childhood?

Nazrin Jafarova

ADA University

WRIT 1202

Ms. Lala Mammadova

April 28, 2024

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Introduction

One of the important stages in early ages, language development, helps prepare children for school and social engagements later. Parental involvement in this stage is very vital, but it is not always clear how different parenting styles, parents’ educational background and the child's gender may affect language skills. We know that parental involvement is good, but we do not fully understand how this works in families that differ from each other in how they raise their children and the different levels of education the parents receive. By looking more closely at these differences, we can learn more about how parents help and sometimes even hinder their children's development of language skills.

Parents' help in teaching children to learn, speak and understand the language better is crucial to developing strong language skills that are important for success in their future lives. Studies emphasize that during the period when children develop their language skills like vocabulary and grammar, their parents should spend quality time with them and give more direction to activities such as reading aloud and story-telling. Additionally, that kind of reading activities boost children's creativity while using language and make them familiar with the structure of the language they learn (Batini et al., 2020; Isik, 2016).

Other interactive family activities are for parents to spend more time talking to their children and answering each of their questions patiently and in more detail. With this, children's ear familiarity with the language increases and they can easily keep new words in their minds (Tamis-Lemonda & Rodriguez, 2008; Topping et al., 2013). However, previous research has shown that the effects on the parent-child relationship may be different depending on the gender of the child (Barbu et al., 2015; Rinaldi et al., 2021).

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Notwithstanding the positive influence of parents with higher education on their children's language development, we need to know how different types of parents can contribute to this process (Hoff et al., 2024; Hupp et al., 2011; Iwaniec, 2020). Indeed, research also indicates that not only does parental level of schooling affect language acquisition but it also helps in selecting school placements for kids thereby exposing them to more diverse linguistic environments (Iwaniec, 2020). Additionally, variations in the development of language skills between boys and girls may imply a need for parents to adapt their methods of communication with children, according to both biological and social reasons (Barbu et al., 2015).

Although the role of parental involvement in language development in early childhood is well known, we still need to better understand how certain factors, such as parents' education levels, different types of parent-child activities like story-telling and reading aloud, and the child's gender, affect language learning. A lot of research has been done on parent-child interactions, but less is known about how these interactions may vary depending on the parents' educational backgrounds or how children with different gender respond to those interactions.

Specifically, the paper will answer the research question: How does parental engagement impact language development in early childhood?

References

Barbu, S., Nardy, A., Chevrot, J. P., Guellai, B., Glas, L., Juhel, J., & Lemasson, A. (2015, December 2). Sex Differences in Language Across Early Childhood: Family Socioeconomic Status does not Impact Boys and Girls Equally. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01874

Batini, F., D’Autilia, B., Pera, E., Lucchetti, L., & Toti, G. (2020, November 29). Reading Aloud and First Language Development: A Systematic Review. Journal of Education and Training Studies. https://doi.org/10.11114/jets.v8i12.5047

Hoff, E., Trecca, F., Højen, A., Laursen, B., & Bleses, D. (2024, March 1). Context and education affect the quality of parents’ speech to children. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2024.101632

Hupp, J. M., Munala, L., Kaffenberger, J. A., & Wessell, M. B. H. (2011, September 24). The Interactive Effect of Parental Education on Language Production. Current Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-011-9118-x

Isik, M. A. (2016). The Impact of Storytelling on Young Ages. European Journal of Language and Literature, 2(3), 115–118. https://doi.org/10.26417/ejls.v6i1.p115-118

Iwaniec, J. (2020). The effects of parental education level and school location on language learning motivation. The Language Learning Journal, 48(4), 427-441. https://doi.org/10.1080/095571736.2017.1422137

Rinaldi, P., Pasqualetti, P., Volterra, V., & Caselli, M. C. (2021, July 9). Gender differences in early stages of language development. Some evidence and possible explanations. Journal of Neuroscience Research. https://doi.org/10.1002/jnr.24914

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Tamis-Lemonda, C., & Rodriguez, E. (2008). Parents’ role in fostering young children’s language and literacy development. NYU Scholars.

https://nyuscholars.nyu.edu/en/publications/parents-role-in-fostering-young-childrens-language-and-literacy-d

Topping, K., Dekhinet, R., & Zeedyk, S. (2013). Parent–infant interaction and children’s language development. Educational Psychology, 33(4), 391–426.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2012.744159