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The Importance of the Home Learning Environment for Infants
and Toddlers: From Research Findings to Evidence-based Practice
Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda New York University
Presented to the Texas School Ready Early Childhood Summer
Institute June 27-29 2017
Overview of Talk
• Part I: Introduction of Core Principles • Part II: Presentation of Research Findings • Part III: Working with Parents • Group Discussion
Part I: Core Principles
Three Core Principles
• Building blocks in the first three years • Parenting is vital: The early learning
environment • Cultural context shapes experiences & skills
Principle #1: Building Blocks • Language and communication skills • Emotion understanding and regulation • Attachment and social relationships • Learning about the world
The Snowball Effect
Early Disparities Grow Over Time
Hart & Risley, 1995
Principle #2: Parenting is Vital
• Parents present infants with opportunities for learning (infants are dependent!) – Structure everyday activities – Materials for exploration – Physical and verbal stimulation (holding, talking)
Principle #3: Parenting & Development in Cultural Context
Cultural Views and Practices
• Views/Values: – Emphasis on assertiveness versus obedience and
humility (individualistic & collectivistic emphases) • Practices:
– How to communicate with children, how much, when, what is appropriate to talk about
– Not all parents view themselves as “teachers” to children
Part II: Research Findings
New York University Funded through National Science
Foundation
General Approach
• Longitudinal (from birth or early infancy) • Multiple aspects of parenting in relation to
emerging skills in infants and children (e.g., language & literacy development)
• Across diverse cultural communities
Measures of Parenting: Focus on the
Early Learning Environment o Three components of the learning environment
assessed at multiple ages starting in the 1st year of life
Rodriguez, E., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., et al. (2009) Applied Developmental Psychology
The Early Learning Environment
Parent-‐Child Interac0ons
Learning Materials
Learning Ac0vi0es
Rodriguez, Tamis-LeMonda, et al., (2009). Applied Developmental Psychology
Positive Parenting Practices
• Learning Activities – Engaging young children in everyday routines
around booksharing, oral storytelling, rhyming, drawing and writing, all of which indoctrinate children into the larger literate society
– Interviews with mothers and time diaries
Positive Parenting Practices
• Learning Materials – Providing children with opportunities to explore
and play with everyday materials in the environment, including access to books
– Observations of the HOME environment and interviews with mothers
Positive Parenting Practices
• Quality of Interactions – Language that is richly “diverse” and behaviors
that are responsive to children’s behaviors – Coding of video-recorded observations of age-
appropriate tasks • Play • Booksharing • Daily routines
Following the Infant’s Lead…
Mothers’ Responsiveness Predicts the Timing of Language Milestones
Tamis-LeMonda, Bornstein & Baumwell, 2001, Child Development
Responsiveness and Language Development: First Words
Tamis-LeMonda, Bornstein & Baumwell, 2001, Child Development
Snowball Effects
Snowball Effects
Developments in Children • Children are changing
everyday: learning new skills, using new words, etc.
Snowball Effects
Developments in Children • Children are changing
everyday: learning new skills, using new words, etc.
Attunement in Parents • Parental responses to these
changes: – Engagement in new forms of
learning activities – Providing of age-appropriate
materials – Interactions that are sensitive
to changes in child
Learning Experiences and School Readiness
• Trajectories of children’s learning environments across the first years of life predict school readiness skills
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
14 24 36 60
Low rise Low decline Moderate decline Moderate rise High decline High stable
Child age in months
Lear
ning
Env
ironm
ent S
core
Rodriguez & Tamis-‐LeMonda (2012), Child Development
Learning Environment Trajectories
70
75
80
85
90
95
100
105
Low Rise Low Decline
Moderate Decline
Moderate Rise
High Decline
High Stable
Model without covariates Model with covariates
Trajectory Group
PPVT
Literacy Environment Trajectories and
School Readiness
Rodriguez & Tamis-‐LeMonda (2012)
PPVT
WJ Letter-Word Identification
WJ Applied Problems
< 85
≥ 100
< 85
≥ 100
< 85
≥ 100
Trajectory Group 1. Low rise 71% 7% 66% 8% 67% 8% 2. Low decline 56% 6% 59% 13% 65% 5% 3. Moderate decline 39% 22% 45% 20% 46% 17% 4. Moderate rise 23% 38% 29% 29% 29% 31% 5. High decline 12% 63% 35% 31% 25% 23% 6. High stable 8% 70% 16% 43% 17% 46%
Literacy Environment Trajectories and School Readiness
Early Learning Environments Predict 5th Grade Experiences and Skills
Tamis-LeMonda, Luo, Rodriguez et al., (under review)
Early Learning Environmentsà # Books at Home Grade 5
10
30
50
70
90
110
130
Low Decline
Low Rise Moderate Decline
Moderate Rise
High Decline
High Stable
Early Learning Environment
# of
Boo
ks
Tamis-‐LeMonda et al. (under review)
PPVT ECLS-‐K Reading ECLS-‐K Math
Early Learning Environment Low decline 81.81 113.09 5.85
Low rise 82.19 113.94 6.79
Moderate decline 90.57 121.88 7.77
Moderate rise 97.32 132.15 9.07
High decline 105.36 144.92 10.79
High stable 105.99 145.37 11.05
Prediction to Grade 5 Skills
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Low Decline
Low Rise Moderate Decline
Moderate Rise
High Decline
High Stable
Grade 5 Academic Success Grade 5 Academic Risk
Perc
ent
8%
28%
55%
83%
Early Learning Environment
Prediction to Grade 5 Skills
What about Fathers?
Father Toddler Interactions
Early Father Involvement Also Predicts Children’s School Readiness and 5th
Grade Academic Skills
*p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001, controlling for father race/ethnicity and time spent with child
Fathers’ Learning Activities and Children’s PreKindergarten Skills
McFadden, K. E., 2012
PPVT Reading Math
Financial provisioning .09** .12** .15**
Engagement in childcare .05 -.05 -.07*
Engagement in play activities
-.06* .00 -.02
Engagement in learning activities
.11** .14*** .08*
*p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001, controlling for father race/ethnicity and time spent with child
Fathers’ Learning Activities and Children’s 5th Grade Skills
McFadden, Tamis-‐LeMonda & Cabrera (2011). Family Science
PPVT ECLS-K Reading
ECSL-K Math
Father learning Early Learning Activities
.14*** .15** .09*
Child Positive Relationship with Biological Father
.16**
.17** .10
Child Positive Relationship with Father-Figure
.09* .15*** .14**
R2 .04*** .05*** .03**
The Cultural Context
Similarities and Differences
“Every man is in certain respects like all other men,
like some other men, and like no other man”
(Kluckhohn & Murray, 1955)
Similarities and Differences
"Every culture is in certain respects like all other cultures,
like some other cultures, and like no other culture."
Similarities
What are my hopes for my child and me as a parent?
What Makes a Good Mother?
• Child Focus: Emotional connection, stimulating child intellectually, responsiveness, communication, playing with child
• Instrumental: Financial provisioning, caregiving, being accessible, protection from danger
• Role Model: Setting good example for behavior • Discipline: Setting limits, patience, educating
child on good behavior
Instrumental
Child Focus
Discipline
Role Model
What Makes a Good Mother? Dominican
Mexican
African American
What Makes a Good Child?
• Undesirable Qualities
– What is one quality you would least like to see in your child when he/she is three years old?
• Desirable Qualities – What is one quality you would most like to see in
your child when he/she is three years old?
Ng, Tamis-LeMonda et al. (2014) Social Dev
Goals for Children
• Achievement
• Individuality
• Proper Demeanor
• Connectedness
Goals for Children
• Achievement – Literacy (e.g., “Read more”)
– Intelligence (e.g., “Be intelligent”)
– Language Development (e.g., “Talk well”)
– General Learning/Curiosity (e.g., “Learn more”)
– School/Life Achievement (e.g., “Do well in school”)
Ng, Tamis-LeMonda et al. (2014) Social Dev
Goals for Children
• Individuality – Instrumental Independence (e.g., “Go to the
bathroom by himself”)
– Emotional Independence (e.g., “Not to be clingy”)
– Acclaim (e.g., “Be attractive”)
– Active/Athletic (e.g., “Be active”)
– Leadership/Individuality (e.g., “Be sure of herself”)
Goals for Children • Proper Demeanor
– Well-Behaved (e.g., “Know her manners”) – Self-Control (e.g., “Be patient”) – General Obedience (e.g., “Be obedient”) – School Obedience (e.g., “Listen to the teacher”) – Respect (e.g., “Be respectful”)
Goals for Children
• Connectedness – Compassion (e.g., “Be considerate”)
– Sociable (e.g., “Be sociable”)
– Affectionate (e.g., “Be sweet”)
– Generous (e.g., “Share”)
Undesirable Qualities: Lack of Proper Demeanor and Respect
2%
6%
73%
13%
6%
Ng, Tamis-LeMonda et al. (2014) Social Dev
Undesirable Qualities
3% 6%
76%
13%
2% African American
2% 6%
71%
14%
7%
Dominican 2% 6%
71%
14%
7%
Mexican
Tranquilo & Rispetto
Tranquilo & Rispetto • “Well, he's learning how to say please. You know. When
you ask him to give you something, he gives it to you… He wanted the glass and he said “pleeease, Mommy?” So, you know, it's basically respect. It has to be respect. If there's no respect, that's a bad thing, you know? So teaching him very young you need to respect. And that's important.” – Puerto Rican, Male, 2 years
Desirable Qualities: Achievement
35%
12% 31%
12%
10%
Ng, Tamis-LeMonda et al. (2014) Social Dev
Desirable Qualities
39%
14%
26%
13%
8%
African American
32%
12% 35%
10%
11%
Dominican
33%
11% 32%
12%
12%
Mexican
Goals for Achievement
• “A doctor, a pediatrician. I want him to be an active person who goes to college”
Dominican mother of boy, 20 months
• “I surely would want them to graduate from elementary school, and move to Junior high school, Senior high school, and get in to college, even further, like you do, go to graduate school for master's and doctoral degree, all the way up.”
Chinese mother of boy, 1 year
But Parents also Recognize the Challenges of Poverty in Realizing
their Goals
Poverty and Parents’ Fears
• “I don't want my son to be a statistic. I don't want my son to be another child lost in drugs, you know, or lost in the system, jail, you know.”
• “Kids disappear… It's really important that he knows, not to go to strangers. And I started teaching Isaiah at three. So he'll start learning at three…So he'll learn at three. He'll start learning these things.” – Puerto Rican mother of 2-year old boy
Be a Leader, not a Follower • “…and you know be a leader, not a follower.
That's how a lot of people I knew got in trouble growing up… or doing what other people suggested you should do. It could've been trouble with the law. It could've been trouble like drinking behind the wheel, driving. Smoking. Being you know hooked on, getting caught up in like the peer pressure.” – African American mother of 2-year old boy
Differences
How do I get there?
Pathways to a Shared Goal
Achievement
Talk to babies and they will learn
Babies learn by observing
Mayan Highland vs. EA U.S. Mothers
• Highland Mayan community – Much of learning occurs through observation,
rather than formal instruction • U.S. European American community
– Direct verbal instruction of children
Rogoff 2003
How Would this Look in Parenting?
• Teaching in Mexican immigrant, Dominican immigrant, African American mothers
• Hypothesis: – If immigrant Mexican mothers believe that infants
learn by observing, will they emphasize more physical support and gestures than language when teaching a novel task?
Using Gestures in Teaching
Using Gestures in Teaching
Mothers’ Gestures to 14-Month Olds
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
African American Dominican Mexican
Freq
uenc
y
Mothers’ Responses to Infant Gesture with Referential Language
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
African American Dominican Mexican
Z S
core
s at 1
4 M
onth
s
Implications for Emergent Skills in Infants
Infants’ Gestures at 14 Months Standardized MacArthur (CDI)
-0.4
-0.3
-0.2
-0.1
0
0.1
0.2
Z sc
ores
at 1
4 M
onth
s
Mexican Dominican African American
Tamis-‐LeMonda, Song et al. (2012) Dev Science
Infants’ Language Production at 14 Months: Standardized MacArthur
-0.3
-0.25
-0.2
-0.15
-0.1
-0.05
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
Z sc
ores
at 1
4 M
onth
s
Mexican Dominican African American
Tamis-‐LeMonda, Song et al. (2012) Dev Science
Assessments of 2 Year Gestural Skills
• Direct assessments of toddlers’ sequenced actions after a demonstration and simple instructions – E.g., Placing shapes into a formboard – Examiner (a) points to the holes and places shapes
(‘Watch me put them in’); (b) removes the shapes (‘Watch me take them out’), and then (c) asks the child to re-place the shapes in their holes (‘Now, you put them in’).
Assessments of 2 Year Gestural Skills
• Other examples: – Imitating crayon lines of different orientations
(“Now we go this way”) – Placing pennies into slots of different orientations
(‘See we put them in’), – Building towers (‘You make one too’) – Screwing/unscrewing nuts and bolts (‘You do it’) – Stringing beads (‘Watch…It’s your turn’).
Infants’ Gestures and Action Imitations Standardized Scores (Mullen)
-0.2
-0.15
-0.1
-0.05
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
Stan
dard
ized
Sco
re
Mexican Dominican African American
Tamis-‐LeMonda, Song et al. (2012) Dev Science
Infants’ Expressive Language
-0.4
-0.3
-0.2
-0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
Stan
dardized
Scores
Mexican Dominican African American
Part III: Working with Parents
What Parents Can Do...
• Respond to infants looks, vocalizations, gestures, object exploration with labels and descriptions – Children learn words for things that interest them.
• Teach vocabulary in meaningful contexts. – Talk during everyday routines that are comfortable
• Use gestures with language to facilitate learning • Share books to promote literacy • Question children (3+) about past experiences
– Elaborate reminiscing promotes children’s oral skills
But how to get there?
Working with Parents on Parenting
• Educate and support parents on the: – importance of early emerging skills – role of parents in promoting learning
• Help parents understand development* – What are developmental changes in children – Why books are a good thing: they expose children to
novel concepts and words they might otherwise not learn (elephant and other animals in zoo)
*Parents are more likely to engage in a behavior if they understand why it is important
Working with Parents on Parenting
• Start Early: Skills build on skills – Already by 1 year of age, infants are developing
skills that will matter over the long term – Implementing positive parenting practices early
creates a “snowball” effect
Working with Parents on Parenting
• Focus on language and literacy has huge payoffs for all areas of development – Language and literacy experiences benefit both
socio-emotional and learning outcomes – Duncan’s meta-analysis of 6 longitudinal studies:
• Language and reading skills mattered for math and reading school achievements; socio-emotional did not
• But, focus on rich & diverse language – nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, rather than
pronouns (“Yellow duck” not “Look at it”)
Working with Parents on Parenting
• Consider the child’s broader social networks – Fathers matter as much as mothers for
development of language and literacy skills – Other kin matter too: siblings, grandparents, etc.
Working with Parents in Context
• Recognize that parenting is multiply determined
Working with Parents in Context
Parenting
Parent and Child
Characteristics
Cultural Views and Practices
Family Resources
Working with Parents in Context
• Understand the risks of poverty: – Poverty creates stress – Stress interferes with responsive parenting – Parents have fears about children’s futures
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Parent’s Concerns
Child’s Learning Needs
Working with Parents in Context
• Keep the child in focus – Doing “everything” means doing “nothing” – Target proximal behaviors (e.g., parent talk to
infant). These have greater benefits than focus on indirect pathways (e.g., inter-parent conflict)
• Use referrals to other resources – Clinical issues are beyond the scope of many
professionals
Working with Parents in Context
• Be there for parents, but with boundaries – Leave time for parent to raise issues outside the
scope of the session, but save these for the end – Clarify visit goals and structure from the start
• Work within a family’s daily routines – Do not make learning activities “parent work”!
• Parents can keep or be interviewed using a daily diary • Identify “moments of opportunity”
Working across Cultural Communities
• Understand parents’ goals – Talk to parents about the qualities they wish to see
in their children • Distinguish hopes for positive qualities vs. concerns
about negative qualities
– Then, work on ways to achieve those goals that are rooted in evidence-based research
• Recognize the developmental strengths of children from different backgrounds
Working across Cultural Communities
• Talk about beliefs that may pose obstacles – “Children should be obedient, not assertive” – “Children who vocalize and explore a lot are
getting into everything and being disobedient” – “Don’t talk to children until they are talking” – “She’s too young for books” – “If you respond to infants you spoil them” – “He’ll catch up!”
Working with Parents of Dual Language Learners
• Identify ways that parents can support the language and literacy development of their infants who will learn two or more languages
DLL Growing up and learning language
Working with Parents of Dual Language Learners
• Identify ways that parents can support the language and literacy development of their infants who will learn two or more languages
• Learning two languages early in development is not harmful – Exposure to strong Spanish and strong English
helps
Working with Parents of Dual Language Learners
• Children benefit from hearing rich language, regardless of language spoken! – If parent has expansive Spanish vocabulary, use
Spanish – But, early exposure to English benefits children as
well: can parents identify resources for English language exposure (if they are not skilled)
Summary
• Snowball Effects: Learning environments in the first years of life: – are highly stable over developmental time – predict children’s school readiness skills and
academic performance years later (5th grade) • Common processes: Language/literacy
experiences in infancy – are foundational to school performance across
diverse U.S. groups
Summary
• Supporting Parents: Promote practices that support early learning and development – learning activities, quality interactions, materials – work within the family’s situation – but keep focus on the prize (the child)
Strategies and Questions?
• What works for you? • What suggestions do you have? • Questions?
Special Thanks to…
• MetroBaby & EHS Participants • MetroBaby & EHS Research Teams