Biomaterial Database

Mother-child and father-child "serve and return" interactions at 9 months: Associations with children's language skills at 18 and 24 months. 2023

Yu Chen, and Natasha J Cabrera, and Stephanie M Reich

University of Maryland, 1145 Cole, College Park, MD 20742, USA. Electronic address: tchen9489@gmail.com.

Infants learn language through the back-and-forth interactions with their parents where they "serve" by uttering sounds, gesturing, or looking and parents "return" in prompt (i.e., close in time) and meaningful (i.e., semantically relevant to the object of interest) ways. In a sample of 9-month-old infants (n = 148) and their mothers and fathers (n = 296 parents) from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds, we examined the associations between "serve and return" (SR) parent-child interactions and children's language skills at 18 and 24 months. We also examined the moderation effects between maternal and paternal SR interactions on language outcomes. SR interactions were transcribed and coded from videotaped parent-child toy play activities during home visits. We report three findings. First, mothers who provided more meaningful responses to their child's serves at 9 months had children with higher expressive language scores at 18 months. Second, fathers' prompt responses (i.e., within 3 s) at 9 months were associated with higher receptive language scores at 18 months, but their meaningful responses were negatively associated with receptive language scores at 24 months. Third, the negative association between fathers' meaningful responses and children's receptive language scores was reduced (compensated) when mothers' meaningful responses were high. Findings show that infants in ethnically and socioeconomically diverse families engage in frequent SR interactions with both mothers and fathers, who make unique contributions to infants' language development. We discuss implications for programs and policies that aim to promote early language development and reduce gaps in school readiness.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007223	Infant	A child between 1 and 23 months of age.	Infants
D008297	Male		Males
D009034	Mother-Child Relations	Interaction between a mother and child.	Mother-Child Interaction,Mother-Child Relationship,Mother-Infant Interaction,Mother-Infant Relations,Interaction, Mother-Child,Interaction, Mother-Infant,Interactions, Mother-Child,Interactions, Mother-Infant,Mother Child Interaction,Mother Child Relations,Mother Child Relationship,Mother Infant Interaction,Mother Infant Relations,Mother-Child Interactions,Mother-Child Relation,Mother-Child Relationships,Mother-Infant Interactions,Mother-Infant Relation,Relation, Mother-Child,Relation, Mother-Infant,Relations, Mother-Child,Relations, Mother-Infant,Relationship, Mother-Child,Relationships, Mother-Child
D009035	Mothers	Female parents, human or animal.	Mothers' Clubs,Club, Mothers',Clubs, Mothers',Mother,Mother Clubs,Mother's Clubs,Mothers Clubs,Mothers' Club
D010287	Parent-Child Relations	The interactions between parent and child.	Parent-Offspring Interaction,Parent Child Relationship,Parent-Child Relationship,Interaction, Parent-Offspring,Parent Child Relations,Parent Child Relationships,Parent Offspring Interaction,Parent-Child Relation,Parent-Child Relationships,Parent-Offspring Interactions,Relation, Parent-Child,Relationship, Parent Child,Relationship, Parent-Child
D005219	Father-Child Relations	Interaction between the father and the child.	Father-Child Relationship,Father Child Relations,Father Child Relationship,Father-Child Relation,Father-Child Relationships,Relation, Father-Child,Relations, Father-Child,Relationship, Father-Child,Relationships, Father-Child
D005220	Fathers	Male parents, human or animal.	Father
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man