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Temperamental and Joint Attentional Predictors of Language Development
Brenda J Salley1, Wallace E Dixon
1Department of Psychology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Merrill-Palmer Quarterly (Wayne State University. Press)
|December 15, 2007
Summary
Child temperament, particularly negative affect and low executive control, inversely impacts language development. Early joint attention did not mediate this relationship in 21-month-olds.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Child Language Acquisition
- Early Social Communication
Background:
- Individual differences in child temperament are linked to variations in language development.
- Early nonverbal social communication, specifically joint attention, shows associations with both temperament and language skills.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if individual differences in joint attention mediate the relationship between temperament and language development.
- To explore the interplay between temperament, joint attention, and language in 21-month-old infants.
Main Methods:
- Assessed temperament, language abilities, and joint attention in a sample of 51 infants at 21 months of age.
- Employed correlational analyses to examine the relationships between these developmental domains.
Main Results:
- Found an inverse relationship between temperamental difficulty (low executive control, high negative affect) and language development.
- Observed that temperamental negative affect was inversely predictive of joint attention.
- The proposed mediation model, where joint attention mediates temperament-language relationships, was not supported.
Conclusions:
- Temperament, especially negative affect and executive control, significantly relates to language development in toddlers.
- While negative affect impacts joint attention, joint attention does not appear to mediate the temperament-language link in early development.
- Further research is needed to fully understand the complex pathways connecting early temperament, social communication, and language acquisition.
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