When do caregivers talk? The influences of activity and time of day on caregiver speech and child vocalizations in two childcare environments.

The importance of the language environment in influencing language outcomes is well known, but few studies have addressed the contextual factors that influence the amount of speech heard and vocalizations produced by a young child under naturalistic conditions. We analyze effects of type of activity engaged in by the child and time of day on quantitative measures of the language environment. We found effects of both activity and time of day. Structured activities generated the highest levels of adult language, but not necessarily the most child vocalizations. Home and daycare environments looked overall very similar on these measures, however there were important differences across the two environments with respect to the specific effects of activity and time of day

Comparison of LENA and Human Coder measures of Adult Words and Child Vocalizations.

<p>N = 20 for all categories except organized playtime at home (N = 3).</p

Language Measures by Activity.

<p>The number of adult words (top) and child vocalizations (bottom) per 5-min block, by activity. Error bars indicate standard error. N for each child is indicated at the bottom of their respective bars.</p

Time spent in activity.

<p>The percentage of time spent engaged in each activity type in the two environments.</p

Participant Age, Sex and Audio Recording Information.

<p>*Same child.</p><p>**Segments under 5 minutes were excluded from the analysis, so the total length of recording differs slightly from total time used in analysis.</p

Language Measures by Child.

<p>The number of adult words (top) and child vocalizations (bottom) per 5-min block, by child. Error bars indicate standard error. N for each child is indicated at the bottom of their respective bars. C022 and C023 are the same child.</p

Language Measures by Time of Day.

<p>The number of adult words (top) and child vocalizations (bottom) per 5-min block, by time of day. Error bars indicate standard error. N for each child is indicated at the bottom of their respective bars.</p