Toddler negative affectivity and effortful control: Relations with parent-toddler conversation engagement and indirect effects on language.

Evidence that early parent-child conversation supports early language development suggests a need to understand factors that account for individual differences in parent-child conversation engagement. Whereas most studies focus on demographic factors, we investigated the role of toddler temperament in a longitudinal study of 120 economically strained families. Specifically, we investigated the degree to which toddlers' negative affectivity and effortful control, considered together as a composite reflecting challenging temperament, accounted for variability in parent-toddler conversation engagement, and whether the frequency of that engagement mediated associations between toddler temperament and toddler expressive language skills.

: Development, inter-rater reliability, and initial validity estimates for a young child-caregiver relationship assessment.

Introduction: Observational assessments are important for understanding a range of behaviors and emotions in the young child-caregiver relationship. This paper provides initial data on a multidimensional assessment for professionals who work with young children and their caregivers, the (WLR). The WLR was designed to assist providers in evaluating strengths and areas for improvement in five areas of young child-caregiver relationship dimensions.

Toddler negative emotion expression and parent-toddler verbal conversation: Evidence from daylong recordings.

Although early emotional and verbal development are thought to be related, emotional and verbal parent-toddler communication are often studied separately, and are frequently measured during brief, semi-structured tasks. Moreover, there is mixed, indirect evidence as to whether toddler negative emotions may elicit or disrupt parent-toddler verbal communication. To address these gaps, the present study used a wearable audio-recording and processing technology, Language Environment Analysis (LENA; Xu, Yapanel, & Gray, 2009), to sample full-day communication between twenty-five parents and their toddlers (12-23 months).

The importance of adverse childhood experiences during the perinatal period.

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study (Felitti et al., 1998) has led to an understanding of how exposure to abuse, neglect, and family dysfunction in childhood are related to subsequent physical and mental health problems. These issues are important to consider during the perinatal period, with studies indicating that pregnant women who report adverse experiences in childhood may be at risk of experiencing mental health and substance use problems.

Toddler emotion expressions and emotional traits: Associations with parent-toddler verbal conversation.

The present study examines how toddler emotions may influence their own or their parents' participation in parent-toddler verbal conversation. Limited, indirect evidence suggests that toddler positive emotions may encourage, whereas negative emotions may disrupt, parent-toddler verbal exchanges, but these hypotheses have not been tested directly. We investigated two aspects of toddler emotions- their emotion expressions and their emotional traits- and examined their relations with parent-toddler verbal conversation engagement.

Sequences of toddler negative emotion and parent-toddler verbal communication during a waking day.

Although the second year of life is characterized by dramatic changes in expressive language and by increases in negative emotion expression, verbal communication and emotional communication are often studied separately. With a sample of twenty-five one-year-olds (12-23 months), we used Language Environment Analysis (LENA; Xu, Yapanel, & Gray, 2009, Reliability of the LENA™ language environment analysis system in young children's natural home environment. LENA Foundation) to audio-record and quantify parent-toddler communication, including toddlers' vocal negative emotion expressions, across a full waking day.