Infants who experience more adult-initiated conversations have better expressive language in toddlerhood

To understand how infants become engaged in conversations with their caregivers, we examined who tends to initiate conversations between adults and infants, differences between the features of infant- and adult-initiated conversations, and whether individual differences in how much infants engage in infant- or adult-initiated conversations uniquely predict later language development. We analyzed naturalistic adult-infant conversations captured via passive recording of the daily environment in two samples of 6-month-old infants. In Study 1, we found that at age 6 months, infants typically engage in more adult- than infant-initiated conversations and that adult-initiated conversations are, on average, longer and contain more adult words. In Study 2, we replicated these findings and, further, found that infants who engaged in more adult-initiated conversations in infancy had better expressive language at age 18 months. This association remained significant when accounting for the number of infant-initiated conversations at 6 months. Our findings indicate that early interactions with caregivers can have a lasting impact on children's language development, and that the extent to which parents initiate interactions with their infants may be particularly important.

Automated summary

The study found that infants tend to initiate conversations with adults, with adult-initiated conversations being longer and containing more adult words on average. Infants who engage more in adult-initiated conversations in infancy showed better expressive language skills at 18 months, even after accounting for the number of infant-initiated conversations at 6 months. This suggests that early interactions with caregivers, particularly the extent to which parents initiate interactions with infants, can have a lasting impact on children's language development.