Welsh, Stephanie N.

In order to explain the development of English and Spanish skills in children from Spanish-speaking homes in the United States, it is necessary to identify their sources of language exposure. Most research to date has focused on home language use. The aim of this study is to identify sources of English and Spanish exposure outside the home that bilingual children experience between the ages of 2 and 5 years. The present study focuses on 3 potential sources: grandparents, extracurricular activities, and early childcare and education settings. We ask how much English and Spanish exposure children receive, how that changes from 2.5 to 5 years, and whether family variables influence those changes. Participants were 149 children from Spanish-speaking homes in southeastern Florida, with at least one parent an immigrant from a Spanish-speaking country. Measured out-of-home sources of input included hours per of week of English and Spanish from a Grandparent, during Extracurricular Activities, and during Preschool at 30, 36, 42, 48, and 60 months. Parents’ Native Language Background groups were either both native Spanish-speaking or one native, Spanish-speaking and one native, English-speaking. Maternal Education was treated as a dichotomous variable: mothers whose highest level of education in English is less than a four-year college degree and mothers whose highest level of education in English is equivalent to or greater than a four-year college degree. Child Birth Order was also treated as a dichotomous variable: only children and first-born children or later born children. Results revealed that for these children from Spanish-speaking homes, Grandparents are primarily a source of heritage-language (Spanish) input and Extracurricular Activities and Preschool are primarily a source of societal-language (English) input. Findings suggest English exposure from out-of-home sources increases over time possibly at the expense of Spanish exposure. Parents’ Native Language Backgrounds and Maternal Education influenced children’s exposure to both languages from these outside sources of input; Child Birth Order did not. Implications for future research and practical application are discussed.

The present study investigated the relation of children’s attentional behaviors to context, gender, and their language skills. Participants were 33 children and their parents. The following attentional behaviors were measured based on coding of video recordings of 30-minute free-play interactions at 30 months: time spent in engaged states (attending to an object, person, or event) and frequency of changes from one engagement state to another. Children’s productive vocabulary and language comprehension were measured using standardized tests at 30, 36, and 42 months. Males spent more time in joint engagement and switched engagement states less frequently. Children spent more time engaged during Animal and Picnic toy play than Book reading. Children attended longer to picnic-related objects than animal-related objects or books, and attended longer to animal- related objects than books. Longer sustained attention—measured as lower frequencies of state switches—was related to higher concurrent and future language comprehension scores.