Parental Language and Learning Directed to the Young Child

Summary:The early home language environment, and parents in particular, form the foundation of children’s language development. In this article, Dina Kapengut and Kimberly Noble explore the intersection of neuroscience and developmental psychology to explain how language experiences in the home, and the home learning environment more broadly, shape young children’s brains and, ultimately, their developmental and academic outcomes.Brain plasticity during childhood makes the brain particularly sensitive to environmental influence. Because socioeconomic inequality is associated with variation in environmental exposures and experiences that are particularly powerful in predicting children’s outcomes, the authors write, children from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds are at a profoundly increased risk for negative physical, socioemotional, cognitive, and academic outcomes. This harmful pattern emerges early, compounds over time, and persists into adulthood.Fortunately, a number of interventions show promise for helping parents improve the home learning environment. Kapengut and Noble highlight several evidence-based programs, most of which focus on the concept of language nutrition—a term created by pediatricians to explain to caregivers that exposure to language that’s rich in quality and quantity and delivered in the context of social interactions is crucial for children’s development and health. They also note the limitations of existing programs and of the research behind them, and they suggest where policy makers, practitioners, and researchers could look to narrow socioeconomic-related differences in home learning environments.