Impact of maternal institutionalization on children’s language development: A multidisciplinary study

Research has uncovered extensive negative effects of institutional rearing on development, including language deficits. However, less is known about how these effects may be passed down vertically from mothers to children. The current study examined this pathway with respect to language development using behavioral and neural measures. Participants were mother–child dyads (children aged 8–71 months) where the mothers were either previously institutionalized in orphanages (n = 20) or not (n = 34). Mothers qualified for the study if they were 16 to 35 years of age, had a child aged 8 months to 5 years, and were native Russian speakers. We hypothesized that mothers with a history of institutionalization would provide a linguistically impoverished environment, leading to lower language scores in their children and altered neural responses to language violations. Contrary to our hypotheses, maternal history of institutionalization was not significantly associated with child language abilities (expressive or receptive) or the frequency of conversational turns. However, mothers with a history of institutionalization spoke fewer words around their female offspring relative to mothers raised in biological families. Event-related potential (ERP) analyses revealed topography differences in children’s P400 response during phonological processing associated with maternal institutionalization history. We were also able to predict with above-chance accuracy children whose mothers had a history of institutionalization using machine learning on ERP measures. These findings suggest the need for targeted interventions to support language development in children of mothers with a history of institutionalization.