Routine Language Intervention: Supporting Spanish-Speaking Mothers’ Talk to Toddlers During Everyday Routines

Lillian R. Masek, Alexandra Mendelsohn, Kelly Escobar, Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

SYNOPSIS: Objective. Toddlers learn language as they participate in everyday routines in the home environment. The Routine Language Intervention encourages caregivers to infuse language in everyday routines to support toddlers’ language development. Design. Researchers collaborated with a Spanish-speaking, immigrant community in New York City to develop an intervention that is grounded in the routines that mothers commonly engage in with their toddlers. Altogether, 51 mothers participated in 6 months of group workshops and home visits. To test the efficacy of the intervention, mothers were videorecorded interacting with their toddlers at home before and after participating in the intervention. A comparison group of 12 families drawn from the same community was also videorecorded in their homes. Results. Mothers who participated in the Routine Language Intervention increased their speech to toddlers, nearly doubling word tokens and word types, and used more types and tokens than mothers in the matched comparison group. Increases in maternal speech were seen for words referring to targeted daily routines (e.g., mealtime, grooming, play and literacy) and extended to other words (e.g., unrelated household objects). Conclusions. Routine Language offers a culturally sensitive, easy-to-implement intervention that builds on families’ everyday routines and yields benefits for toddlers’ early language exposure.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)119-143
Number of pages25
JournalParenting
Volume24
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Education
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology

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