Communication Sciences and Disorders, Department of Special Education and Clinical Sciences, University of Oregon, United States.
Communication Sciences and Disorders, Department of Special Education and Clinical Sciences, University of Oregon, United States.
Infant Behav Dev. 2021 May;63:101554. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2021.101554. Epub 2021 Mar 31.
The current exploratory study describes exposure to digital media in young children from Mexican immigrant homes and its association with language input and output. Using multiple recordings of children's home environments, we report on the rate (i.e., percentage of total recording time), language (Spanish or English), and type (adult- or child-directed programming) of auditory media exposure in toddlers under three years of age (N = 30; M = 20;3 months). We also examine total adult words and adult-child conversational turns, as indicators of child language input, and the number of child language vocalizations as a measure of early language development. Findings showed that digital media comprised approximately 14 % of the child language environment that families selected to record, with wide variability observed. Children were more likely to be exposed to media in Spanish than English and adult-directed than child-directed programming. Children's general media exposure was negatively associated with the amount of children's vocalizations and conversational turns but not the quantity of adult words in the environment, suggesting that the relation between media exposure and child language development is likely not mediated by a general decrease in adult input in Mexican immigrant homes. Instead, media exposure may decrease opportunities for children to engage in conversation and practice language expression, both critical mechanisms for successful language acquisition. Selection of child-directed programming may encourage child vocalizations but is less likely to be in Spanish in these homes, which may reduce opportunities for engagement with Spanish-dominant adults. Together these findings provide a window into the nature of media exposure in children from Mexican immigrant homes and into the associations between media and language input and output. Directions for future research are discussed.
本探索性研究描述了墨西哥移民家庭中幼儿接触数字媒体的情况及其与语言输入和输出的关系。我们通过多次录制儿童的家庭环境，报告了 3 岁以下幼儿（N = 30；M = 20；3 个月）的听觉媒体暴露率（即总录音时间的百分比）、语言（西班牙语或英语）和类型（成人或儿童导向节目）。我们还检查了儿童语言输入的总成人单词和成人与儿童对话的次数，以及作为早期语言发展衡量标准的儿童语言发声次数。研究结果表明，数字媒体约占家庭选择录制的儿童语言环境的 14%，观察到了很大的差异。与儿童导向节目相比，儿童更有可能接触西班牙语媒体而不是英语媒体，以及成人导向节目而不是儿童导向节目。儿童的一般媒体暴露与儿童发声次数和对话次数呈负相关，但与环境中成人单词的数量无关，这表明媒体暴露与儿童语言发展之间的关系不太可能是由墨西哥移民家庭中成人输入普遍减少引起的。相反，媒体暴露可能会减少儿童参与对话和练习语言表达的机会，而这两者都是成功语言习得的关键机制。选择儿童导向节目可能会鼓励儿童发声，但在这些家庭中，西班牙语的节目可能较少，这可能会减少与西班牙语为主的成人互动的机会。这些发现共同提供了一个了解墨西哥移民家庭中儿童媒体暴露的性质以及媒体与语言输入和输出之间关系的窗口。讨论了未来研究的方向。
