Associations between responsive parental behaviours in infancy and toddlerhood, and language outcomes at age 7 years in a population-based sample.

Background: A wealth of evidence supports the important role high-quality parent-child interactions play in children's early language acquisition. However, the impact on later language outcomes remains unclear.

Aims: To examine the associations between responsive parental behaviours across the early years and child language outcomes at age 7 years with families from an Australian longitudinal cohort study (N = 1148, 50% female).

Methods & Procedures: At child ages 12, 24 and 36 months, parents completed a self-report measure of responsive parental behaviours. Child language was directly assessed at age 7 using the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, 4th edition (CELF-4), Australian Standardisation. Linear regression was used to examine associations between responsive parental behaviours from 12 to 36 months (consistently high, inconsistent and consistently low responsive parental behaviours at the three time points) and language scores at age 7 years. Adjusted models were run, including the following potential confounders: child sex; birth weight; birth order; maternal education; socio-economic disadvantage; non-English-speaking background; family history of speech-language problems; mother's vocabulary score; maternal mental health score; and mother's age at birth of child. A final adjusted model was run, including the potential confounder variables as well as adjusting for children's earlier language skills.

Outcomes & Results: Linear regression results showed children with parents who rated high on responsive parental behaviours at all three time points had higher mean language scores at age 7 than children whose parents reported low responsive parental behaviours across early childhood. This association attenuated after adjusting for earlier child language skills.

Conclusions & Implications: Findings support the consistent use of responsive parental behaviours across the very early years of childhood to support long-term language outcomes. Findings also suggest that models of surveillance and support which monitor and assist families at multiple time-points over the early years are likely to be most effective for preventing ongoing language difficulties.

What This Paper Adds: What is already known on this subject There is extensive evidence consistently demonstrating the important contribution of aspects of parent-child interaction, specifically responsive parental behaviours, to children's language development. What this paper adds to the existing knowledge Understanding the cumulative benefit of responsive parent-child interactions across the very early years may help to inform preventive interventions and service delivery models for supporting young children's language development. This study demonstrates in a large, population-based cohort the contribution of consistency of responsive parental behaviours during infancy and toddlerhood to school-age language outcomes, accounting for other child, family and environmental factors. Capturing regular parent behaviours via self-report during the early years may be a more efficient and less costly method than parent-child interaction observations to monitor the home language-learning environment during routine developmental checks. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Findings support the need for surveillance of children and families in the early years, ensuring that intervention occurs when families need it most, that is, support is responsive to changing needs and that nuanced advice and support strategies are provided to activate positive developmental cascades. Capturing both parent behaviours and child language may assist clinicians to identify those families who may benefit from parent-child interaction intervention.