How does variation in activity context affect the language used by parents and children? A Scoping Review

For decades, researchers have observed interactions between parents and children, and used these observations to determine which interaction strategies appear to foster language development (Leadbeater & Litosseliti, 2014). In turn, these theories have formed the basis of parent-child interaction (PCI) interventions for children who are delayed in acquiring language (van Kleeck, 1994). However, many studies are based on observations of infants and their parents in laboratory settings (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2019). This means that findings are stripped of context and may fail to reflect the actual day to day interactions that children participate in. In addition, volunteer participants in language development studies typically reflect a non-diverse population and therefore interactions and attitudes taken to be the ‘norm’ may be specific to certain cultural groups (Kuchirko & Nayfeld, 2020). Many studies have focussed on activity contexts selected by researchers, such as free play and book reading, and in turn speech and language interventions often relate to these same play-based activities (Wing et al., 2007) or focus on book sharing (Manz et al., 2010). However, parental attitudes towards and frequency of engagement in activities like play and book reading vary across families and cultures (Simmons & Johnston, 2007). Therefore, a speech and language therapist’s use of an intervention context which might be rich in language for one family may not be effective for another family. In order to provide effective intervention for a greater range of children, we need to consider how interaction might vary across different everyday activity contexts, and reflect on limitations in our current knowledge.

This poster will outline the results of a scoping review conducted to explore the breadth of existing literature about how language used by preschool children and their parents varies across different activity contexts.

A scoping review was conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology (Peters et al., 2020). A search strategy was developed in consultation with a clinical librarian and five databases were searched. Studies were included if they described linguistic outputs of parents and their typically developing preschool age children (aged 1;0 to 5;11 years). Included studies used a within-subject design to compare language outputs across more than one activity context.

Results will be presented to illustrate the characteristics of study participants, activity contexts studied and language outputs recorded. The studies will be synthesised and findings will describe key groups that are represented in the research, and consider to what extent evidence is ecologically valid in relation to children’s real-life activities and interactions.

We will comment on clinical relevance of our findings for SLT interventions as well as areas where further research is needed.

We will consider the relevance of the findings for PCI interventions and reflect on how intervention may be adapted for a range of everyday activity contexts.