Title: "Fathers' input to language-impaired children during book reading and free play"
Speaker: Amanda Eisner, HESP Honors Program
Date: Wednesday, April 16; 12-1 PM
Room: LeFrak Hall Room 0135
Abstract:
Many researchers have examined several features (including prosodic, lexical, syntactic, and discourse features) of child-directed speech. Most of the research conducted on child-directed speech has looked only at mothers. Although limited, there has been some research completed that has examined fathers’ child-directed speech as well. A number of these studies have concluded that fathers are less attuned to their child’s level of language development or use a more linguistically challenging input style. However, little research has examined fathers’ language directed to language-delayed children. The study of fathers’ input is in its early stages and it seems necessary to gain more knowledge of this topic. This study specifically compared lexical and syntactic features of fathers’ speech to language-delayed and typically developing children as well as differences between fathers’ speech and mothers’ speech across both groups. During this seminar, I will discuss the results and implications of this study.
