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Parental goals and talk with toddlers
Meredith L Rowe1, Allison Casillas
1University of Maryland, College Park.
Infant and Child Development
|October 18, 2011
Summary
Parental goals influence toddler conversations. Parents with educational goals discuss academics more, while pragmatic goals lead to more practical talk, impacting child development communication.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Parent-Child Interaction
- Communication Studies
Background:
- Parental beliefs and behaviors are linked.
- Limited research exists on parental goals and toddler communication topics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between parental goals and conversation topics with 30-month-olds.
- To determine if different parental goals correlate with specific communication themes.
Main Methods:
- Semi-structured interviews with 47 primary caregivers to identify parental goals.
- Video recording and coding of parent-toddler interactions to analyze conversation topics.
- Analysis controlled for socio-economic status.
Main Results:
- Parental goals included educational, social-emotional, developmental, and pragmatic areas.
- Most frequent conversation topics were pragmatic, followed by play and academic.
- Parents with long-term educational goals focused more on academic topics and less on pragmatic ones.
Conclusions:
- Parental goals vary significantly.
- These differing goals directly shape the content of parent-toddler conversations.
- Understanding parental goals offers insight into early childhood communication patterns.
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