More research underscores that parents? involvement shapes children?s academic success.

By Bridget Murray
Monitor Staff

Mothers who carry on long one-sided conversations with their babies??oohing? and ?aahing? and spouting a stream of baby-talk gobbledygook?may draw snickers from others, but new studies show that their toddlers are listening and learning.

In fact, the degree to which parents talk with their preschool-ers is a strong determinant of children?s academic success later on, the research suggests. While parental influence on children?s cognitive development is nothing new to psychologists, many haven?t realized just how critical a role parents play in children?s school readiness.

Socioeconomic differences

Certainly, psychologists Betty Hart, PhD, and Todd Risley, PhD, were surprised at how much parental teaching goes on when babies are still in diapers. In past research, Hart and Risley have found that children from high-income families arrive at kindergarten and first-grade with a powerful language edge on their peers from poor neighborhoods, and they?ve always suspected that varying family interaction patterns could explain the difference.

To test their theory, Hart and Risley, professors at the universities of Kansas and Alaska, respectively, recruited 42 black and white families with infants ages 7 months to 12 months. Their parents were either welfare recipients, blue-collar workers or professionals.

Once a month an observer visited the families? homes, recording mothers? verbal attention to children as they cooked dinner, folded laundry and watched television. Observers also taped families? conversations until the children turned 3. The results, published in the book, ?Meaningful Differences? (Paul Brooks, 1995), revealed a distinct pattern of differences. The better-educated, professional mothers?regardless of ethnicity?spoke to their children the most and the welfare mothers spoke to their children the least.

?The differences were amazing,? says Risley. ?The welfare child heard 600 words an hour, the working class child heard 1,200 words an hour, and the professional child heard 2,100 words an hour?a staggering amount.?

In fact, the findings were so compelling that Hillary Rodham Clinton cited them in her book, ?It Takes a Village,? (Simon & Schuster, 1996). The First Lady has launched a crusade for boosting children?s learning in the early years of their brain development. In April she coordinated a White House conference on the topic (see article, page 13).

Differences in the amount parents interact with their children really do add up, says Risley. His study found that by age 4, the disparity in the amount of words that children knew showed up on IQ and vocabulary testing. Three-year-olds from the talkative, high-income families had higher IQ and vocabulary scores than 3-year-olds from low-income, taciturn families. Not only did children from highly verbal families hear more words, but parents asked them more questions and repeated or expanded upon comments the children made, says Hart. This positive feedback reinforces children?s verbal expression and learning and balances the more negative, controlling comments parents make, like ?Get your feet off the table? and ?Put your shoes back on,? she said. Unfortunately, lower-income children mostly hear the negative comments and few of the positive ones, she adds.

The Fullerton study

Other research, such as the Fullerton Longitudinal Study, supports the research by Hart and Risley. Led by psychologist Allen Gottfried, PhD, of California State University?Fullerton, the study has tracked the development of 130 children since 1979, when they were 1 year old. The children come from widely diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. Based on home visits to the families when the children were 15 months, 39 months and 8 years old, the researchers have found a strong effect of home environment on the children?s IQ scores.

Parents with higher earning power and educational levels are most likely to have gifted children, the researchers have found. And the data show that mothers of those gifted children provided their toddlers with more reference books, computerized teaching aides and trips to the museum, says Gottfried. They make every minute with their child count, he says.

?The quality of the time parents spend with their children is what really matters,? says Gottfried. ?Effective parents respond to children and draw out their natural curiosity about the world.?

In his study, gifted children often sought learning opportunities, and their parents were glad to oblige them. Findings also showed that parents of gifted children had spent significantly more time reading aloud to their babies. Children exposed to parental reading showed cognitive gains as early as 18 months, says Gottfried. Based on such findings, Mrs. Clinton has also been touting the importance of reading to children.

Gentle guidance

Cognitive guidance from parents is also crucial during children?s first three years, find psychologists Beverly Fagot, PhD, of the University of Oregon?s Social Learning Center, and Mary Gauvain, PhD, of the University of California?Riverside.

In a study published in last month?s Developmental Psychology journal (Vol. 33, No. 3, p. 480?488) the researchers examined interactions between 85 18-month-olds and their mothers. Then, when the children were 30 months old, the researchers observed mothers? guiding behaviors as their children tried to remove a stuffed animal from a box using balls or a hook. Children whose mothers gave them the most tips and strategies for freeing the toy performed best on intelligence tests at age 5.

They also had the lowest rates of learning problems, as rated by their teachers. Children whose mothers forcefully commanded or directed their performance on the tasks had lower intelligence scores and higher rates of learning disabilities.

It?s never too late to start working at improving children?s outcomes, Hart says. Nurturing children?s learning is something every parent can do, no matter what their cultural background or income level, she says.

?It?s as simple as spending more time talking and reading with your children,? said Hart. ?That?s all.?