Communicative Function Use of Preschoolers and Mothers From Differing Racial and Socioeconomic Groups

Area of Science:

• Child Development
• Linguistic Pragmatics
• Sociolinguistics

Background:

• Communicative functions (CFs) are reasons for communicating.
• Understanding how demographic factors influence early language development is crucial.
• Previous research indicates potential differences in pragmatic skills based on SES, race, and gender.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate differences in communicative function (CF) use among preschoolers based on socioeconomic status (SES), race/ethnicity, and gender.
• To compare CF production patterns between preschoolers and their mothers.
• To determine if maternal demographic characteristics influence children's CF production.

Main Methods:

• Observed 95 mother-preschooler dyads during structured learning and free-play interactions.
• Coded communicative functions (CFs) using trained independent raters.
• Dyads were drawn from the National Center for Early Development and Learning's study of family and social environments.

Main Results:

• Children used all CFs similarly, but low SES children produced fewer utterances and less reasoning.
• Boys used less self-maintaining and more predicting communicative functions.
• Mothers showed more demographic differences in CFs than children, with variations by SES, race/ethnicity, and gender.

Conclusions:

• Maternal demographic characteristics significantly influenced communicative function (CF) production in preschoolers.
• Observed patterns for low SES children and boys align with existing pragmatic literature.
• Preschoolers from racial/ethnic minority and low SES backgrounds demonstrated comparable CF skills, challenging deficit-based assumptions.