The language outcome of a particularly high-risk population: The role of caregiver speech, responsivity, and directiveness

The role of the caregiver on development, including language, has been well documented. Caregivers using more complex speech patterns, and more responsive to their children\u27s signals are said to encourage the development of language. Parents using less complex speech and using language to direct behavior are said to adversely impact development. The current study was designed to add to the already existing literature, expand these findings to a particularly high-risk population, and evaluate the influence of the caregiver on 36-month language outcome.Eighty-nine caregiver-child dyads, enrolled in an intervention for children prenatally exposed to cocaine, participated in a six-minute play interaction at 24 months. Language was assessed using an average of the receptive and expressive scores on the Reynell Language Development Scale at 36-months. Number of words and linguistic richness were chosen to examine the role of caregiver speech. A composite score of verbal compliance and linguistic mapping was computed to assess responsivity and a composite of follow directives and lead directives was computed to assess directiveness. With regard to caregiver speech, only linguistic richness was significantly associated with language outcome. Responsivity was significantly associated with language, but directiveness was not. Follow-up regressions indicated that linguistic richness mediated the impact of responsivity on language and directiveness tended to moderate the impact of linguistic richness on language outcome.Caregivers were also classified into four distinct interaction styles using median splits of responsivity and directiveness. Caregivers were classified as either: (1) Low responsivity, low directiveness (LrLd), (2) High responsivity, low directiveness (HrLd), (3) Low responsivity, high directiveness (LrHd), and (4) High responsivity, high directiveness (HrHd). These interaction styles were significantly associated with language outcome. Among caregivers with more consistent interaction styles (HrLd, LrHd), the linguistic richness and directiveness were significantly associated with language outcome. Among caregivers with more extreme caregiving styles (LrLd, HrHd), only responsivity was significantly associated with language outcome. The results of this suggest that caregivers have a significant impact on the language outcome of their children. These findings have implications for language intervention strategies; particularly, for a population for whom an optimal caregiving environment may be especially critical

Associations between center-based care accreditation status and the early educational outcomes of children in the child welfare system

Given the corpus of studies demonstrating the positive effects of high quality early care and education (ECE) experiences on the development and early academic outcome of children who attend ECE centers, the current study aims to expand on the literature by exploring the effects of quality, as measured by accreditation status, on the developmental and early academic outcomes of children in the child welfare system. More specifically, the authors focus on children in the child welfare system, receiving childcare subsidies and enrolled in community-based ECE centers. Findings indicate that attending an accredited center results in better outcomes for both children in child welfare and a comparison group of low-income children not in child welfare. Moreover, children in child welfare system are far less likely to attend accredited ECE centers than their non-child welfare counterparts. Finally, children in the child welfare system demonstrate poorer performance at the end of pre-k than children not in the child welfare system. Implications for research, practice, and policy are discussed. ► We assess the effect of accreditation on the outcome of children in child welfare. ► Attending an accredited center results in better outcomes for all. ► Children in child welfare are less likely to attend accredited centers. ► Children in child welfare show poorer outcomes than those not in child welfare

Adult Perceptions of Positive and Negative Infant Emotional Expressions

Adults' perceptions provide information about the emotional meaning of infant facial expressions. This study asks whether similar facial movements influence adult perceptions of emotional intensity in both infant positive (smile) and negative (cry face) facial expressions. Ninety‐five college students rated a series of naturally occurring and digitally edited images of infant facial expressions. Naturally occurring smiles and cry faces involving the co‐occurrence of greater lip movement, mouth opening, and eye constriction, were rated as expressing stronger positive and negative emotion, respectively, than expressions without these 3 features. Ratings of digitally edited expressions indicated that eye constriction contributed to higher ratings of positive emotion in smiles (i.e., in Duchenne smiles) and greater eye constriction contributed to higher ratings of negative emotion in cry faces. Stronger mouth opening contributed to higher ratings of arousal in both smiles and cry faces. These findings indicate a set of similar facial movements are linked to perceptions of greater emotional intensity, whether the movements occur in positive or negative infant emotional expressions. This proposal is discussed with reference to discrete, componential, and dynamic systems theories of emotion

Early Intervention with Children Prenatally Exposed to Cocaine: Expansion with Multiple Cohorts

Prenatal cocaine exposure is an indicator for adverse developmental outcomes. To prevent developmental disabilities, an early intervention program for children birth to 3 years was developed that included three groups: center-based, home-based, and primary care comparison. The intervention was implemented across 10 years and data were collected on 342 children and families who were primarily urban, poor, and members of traditionally underrepresented groups. At 36 months of age, center and home-based intervention participants had more advanced cognitive and language abilities and fewer behavior problems than the primary care group participants. In addition, center-based participants had more advanced language abilities than home-based participants. The findings indicate that the early intervention impact is sustainable over time and has a positive effect on children at risk due to prenatal cocaine exposure