Suarez-Rivera, Catalina;
Fletcher, Katelyn K;
Tamis-LeMonda, Catherine S;
(2024)
Infants’ home auditory environment: Background sounds shape language interactions.
Developmental Psychology
, 60
(12)
pp. 2274-2289.
10.1037/dev0001762.
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Abstract
Background sounds at home—namely those from television, communication devices, music, appliances, transportation, and construction—can support or impede infant language interactions and learning. Yet real-time connections at home between background sound and infant–caregiver language interactions remain unexamined. We quantified background sounds in the home environment, from 1- to 2-hr video recordings of infant–mother everyday activities (infants aged 8–26 months, 36 female) in two samples: European-American, English-speaking, middle-socioeconomic status (SES) families (N = 36) and Latine, Spanish-speaking, low-SES families (N = 40). From videos, we identified and coded five types of background sound: television/screens, communication devices, music, appliances, and transportation/construction. Exposure to background sounds varied enormously among homes and was stable across a week, with television/screens and music being the most dominant type of background sounds. Infants’ vocalizations and mothers’ speech to infants were reduced in the presence of background sound (although effect sizes were small), highlighting real-time processes that affect everyday language exchanges. Over the course of a day, infants in homes with high amounts of background sounds may hear and produce less language than infants in homes with less background sounds, highlighting potential cascading influences from environmental features to everyday interactions to language learning.
Type: | Article |
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Title: | Infants’ home auditory environment: Background sounds shape language interactions |
Location: | United States |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
DOI: | 10.1037/dev0001762 |
Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0001762 |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | Copyright © American Psychological Association, 2024. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. (This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions). |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept |
URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10202722 |
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