This study examines the effect of certain socio-cultural factors of the family environment on the language of toddlers and children in early childhood. The sample included 86 families with one- to six-year-old children. The data on the social, economic, and cultural factors of the family environment, parental reading literacy, parental knowledge of children's development, children's exposure to shared reading, and child language were obtained in the family environment. The analysis results showed that the presumed structural model fitted our data well. Parental education, family financial conditions, parental knowledge of children's development, and parental reading literacy was able to explain 13% of the variance in child language. The obtained results confirm the significant effect of social, economic, and cultural factors of the child's family on language during toddlerhood and early childhood.
COBISS.SI-ID: 56853346
In our study, we explored the ways in which SES-related factors of family environment affect child’s language across toddlerhood and early childhood. We proposed a mediational path model in which we presumed that family literacy activities and parental encouragement of symbolic play acted as mediating variables, mediating the effect of parental education, family possessions and parent-to-child speech on child’s language. The sample included 99 families with children, aged from 1 to 6 years. The data were collected in the family home, mostly via direct observation and by using a semi-structured interview with parents. The findings suggest that high-SES parents and parents who used a more complex and supportive speech, more frequently involved their children in different literacy activities. The effect of the parent-to-child speech on child’s language proved to be mediated by parental use of mental transformations during symbolic play with a child.
COBISS.SI-ID: 57689698