Université Laval, Canada.
Université de Montréal, Canada.
J Child Lang. 2020 Mar;47(2):435-456. doi: 10.1017/S0305000919000539. Epub 2019 Oct 8.
Our aim was to assess whether infants influence the quantity and quality of their mothers' speech to them and, in turn, whether this maternal speech influences children's later language. As 189 mothers interacted with each of their twins at age 0;5, we calculated the number of utterances, the proportion of sensitive utterances, and the proportion of self-repeated utterances they produced. We later assessed the twins' language comprehension and production when they were 1;6, 2;6, and 5;2. Quantity of maternal speech predicted child language at 5;2, whereas sensitivity predicted child language at 2;6 and 5;2 and partial self-repetition predicted child language at 1;6. Conversely, sensitivity and partial self-repetition in maternal speech at 0;5 were associated with genetic factors from the child, indicating that infant characteristics influence the quality of maternal speech. Overall, our findings stress the importance of considering both directions in the association between maternal speech and child characteristics.
我们的目的是评估婴儿是否会影响其母亲与他们交流的语言数量和质量，以及这种母亲的语言是否会影响孩子以后的语言。当 189 位母亲与他们的双胞胎在 0;5 岁时进行互动时，我们计算了她们说出的话语数量、敏感话语的比例和自我重复话语的比例。后来，我们在双胞胎 1;6 岁、2;6 岁和 5;2 岁时评估了他们的语言理解和表达能力。母亲言语的数量预测了 5;2 岁时的儿童语言，而敏感性则预测了 2;6 岁和 5;2 岁时的儿童语言，部分自我重复则预测了 1;6 岁时的儿童语言。相反，0;5 岁时母亲言语中的敏感性和部分自我重复与来自孩子的遗传因素有关，这表明婴儿的特征会影响母亲言语的质量。总的来说，我们的研究结果强调了在母亲言语和儿童特征之间的关联中考虑两个方向的重要性。
