Giving children non-verbal clues about words boosts vocabularies

The clues that parents give toddlers about words can make a big difference in how deep their vocabularies are when they enter school, new research at the University of Chicago shows.

By using words to reference objects in the visual environment, parents can help young children learn new words, according to the research.

It also explores the difficult-to-measure quality of non-verbal clues to word meaning during interactions between parents and children learning to speak.

For example, saying, "There goes the zebra" while visiting the zoo helps a child learn the word "zebra" faster than saying, "Let's go to see the zebra."

Differences in the quality of parents' non-verbal clues to toddlers (what children can see when their parents are talking) explain about a quarter (22 percent) of the differences in those same children's vocabularies when they enter kindergarten, researchers found.

The results are reported in the paper, "Quality of early parent input predicts child vocabulary three years later," published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Erica Cartmill

"Children's vocabularies vary greatly in size by the time they enter school," said lead author Erica Cartmill, a postdoctoral scholar at UChicago.

"Because preschool vocabulary is a major predictor of subsequent school success, this variability must be taken seriously and its sources understood."

Scholars have found that the number of words youngsters hear greatly influences their vocabularies.

Parents with higher socioeconomic status—those with higher income and more education—typically talk more to their children and accordingly boost their vocabularies, research has shown.

That advantage for higher-income families doesn't show up in the quality research, however.

"What was surprising in this study was that social economic status did not have an impact on quality.

Parents of lower social economic status were just as likely to provide high-quality experiences for their children as were parents of higher status," said co-author Susan Goldin-Meadow, the Beardsley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at UChicago.

More information: Quality of early parent input predicts child vocabulary 3 years later, www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1309518110

Military families need more help with mental health - Pediatrics

A leading pediatricians' group is highlighting the plight of children in military families in a new report.

Tours of duty can last up to 18 months, and studies have shown that one in four children of active-duty service members has symptoms of depression.

One in three children experiences excessive worry, and half of children have trouble sleeping, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) report.

These problems can be even worse when there are other psychological issues in the family, according to the report, which was published online May 27 and in the June print issue of the journal Pediatrics.

During deployments, preschoolers could become anxious and withdraw. Children between 5 and 17 years old also are at greater risk for emotional and behavioural problems, the report said.

And the situation can get worse when kids' parents are on extended deployments. Meanwhile, the AAP advised that parents or caregivers who remain at home also are under greater stress.

This could, in turn, affect the mental health and well-being of children.

Because half of all children of active-duty military service members are taken care of by nonmilitary pediatricians before, during and after deployment, the AAP emphasized that all health care providers must recognize the mental-health needs of their patients with deployed parents, and those of other family members.

"By understanding the military family and the stressful experiences of parental wartime deployment, all pediatricians—both active duty and civilian—and other health care providers can be the front line in caring for U.S. military children and their families," report co-author Dr. Benjamin Siegel said.

"In the past 10 years, more than 2 million children in the U.S. have experienced the emotional and stressful event of being separated from a loved one deployed for active duty," report co-author Dr. Beth Ellen Davis said in the release.

"Most children cope and adapt quite well, but all children experience a heightened sense of fear and worry during a parent's deployment. It's important for pediatricians caring for these families to be aware of their family's situation so they can guide them appropriately."

Depression in Adolescent Girls linked to Father Absence

New research from the Children of the 90s study at the UK University of Bristol shows that girls whose fathers were absent during the first five years of life were more likely to develop depressive symptoms in adolescence than girls whose fathers left when they were aged five to ten years or than boys in both age groups (0-5 and 5-10). 

This finding has been found to be true, even after a range of factors was taken into account.

While previous studies have looked at the effect of childhood separation and divorce on the risk of depression in adolescence, this new research, published 15 May in Psychological Medicine, is one of only a few studies to look specifically at the effect of a father's absence and the timing of his departure on adolescents' mental health.

The study is one of the largest of its kind (5,631 children) and because Children of the 90s has charted the health and well-being of its participants since birth, it is one of only a few able to demonstrate a strong link between early childhood father absence and teenage girls' risk of depressive symptoms.

The finding has been found to be true, even after a wide range of other factors that can contribute to depression – including home ownership, social status, financial problems, family size, parental conflict, the mother's educational background and history of depression – are taken into account.

The authors say their findings are in line with previous studies suggesting that young children are more likely to suffer depression because they have developed fewer 'coping mechanisms' than older children, who also have more opportunities and resources to cope, as well as more social support networks, e.g. friends, outside the family.

Previous studies suggest that the stronger negative effect of father absence on the mental health of teenage girls over boys could be because girls are more vulnerable to negative interpersonal and family life events.

Iryna Culpin, the paper's lead author, said: "These findings indicate a need to include fathers in research related to child and adolescent mental health issues."

She also suggests that support for depression could be aimed at teenage girls whose father left before the age of five.

The authors highlight that it does not necessarily follow that a teenage girl who experiences depression as a teenager will continue to be affected later in life.

They also point out that the study did not examine the level of contact nor the quality of the relationship between a child and an absent father, all of which could influence the risk of depression.

More information: Culpin, I. et al. Father absence and depressive symptoms in adolescence: findings from a UK cohort, Psychological Medicine.

Stepfathers: Three Factors Contribute to Closeness

Although one-third of American children live in a step-family during part of their childhood, little is known about the development of the relationship between stepfathers and stepchildren.

New research from Brigham Young University fills that gap with a study that identified three factors that significantly contribute to closeness in stepfamilies:

• The couple keeps arguments to a minimum
• Mothers help children feel comfortable sharing their frustrations. 
• The stepfather and mother agree on how to parent

Kevin Shafer

BYU professor Kevin Shafer's research on step-families appears in the academic journal Social Work.

"Family roles can be negotiated and there is going to be some bumpiness," said Shafer, who teaches and researches in BYU's School of Social Work.

"The notion that couples should put the couple first and everything else will fall into place is false."

Shafer and BYU grad student Todd Jensen analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of 1,088 children in step-families.

From the children's perspective, frustrations occur when the new dad assumes too much parental authority or when he disrupts the family's normal way of doing things.

"Moms need to let their children know that it's ok to talk if they have a problem with their stepfather because everybody is still trying to figure out this new family dynamic," Shafer said.

And the lack of history between step-fathers and children amplifies the detrimental effects of parental conflict. "Full-blown arguments set up step-families for failure," Shafer said.

Couples typically make one of two mistakes in the transition.

• The first type involves the couple acting as though nothing major has changed. that the new father is a replacement instead of an addition. 
• The second type of mistake is for mom to take upon herself all of the parenting.

The common thread in both scenarios is that the children's voices are missing.

"If you have teenagers, they should be a pretty active participant in discussions of what the family is going to look like and how the family is going to function," Shafer said.

The study contains one pleasant surprise:

Communicating openly and avoiding arguments contributes to closeness regardless of family income or education level.

"It really is the interpersonal dynamic that predicts family closeness," Shafer said. "You can build these bonds in spite of financial challenges."