Contingent conversations build more than language: How communicative interactions in toddlerhood relate to preschool executive function skills

• Published in: Developmental science 2023-05, Vol.26 (3), p.e13338-n/a
• Main Authors: Masek, Lillian R., Weiss, Staci Meredith, McMillan, Brianna T. M., Paterson, Sarah J., Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick, Hirsh‐Pasek, Kathy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Behavior; Caregivers; caregiver‐child interaction; Child Language; Child, Preschool; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive ability; Communication; Executive Function; Executive Function - physiology; Female; Humans; infancy; Interaction; Interpersonal Communication; Language; language development; Language Skills; Memory; Memory, Short-Term; Mothers; Mothers - psychology; Parent Child Relationship; preschool; Preschool Children; Short term memory; Structural equation modeling; Toddlers
• ISSN: 1363-755X; 1467-7687
• DOI: 10.1111/desc.13338

High‐quality communicative interactions between caregivers and children provide a foundation for children's social and cognitive skills. Although most studies examining these types of interactions focus on child language outcomes, this paper takes another tack. It examines whether communicative, dyadic interactions might also relate to child executive function (EF) skills and whether child language might mediate this relation. Using a subset of data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, dyadic interactions between 2‐year‐olds and their mothers were coded for three behaviors: symbol‐infused joint engagement, routines and rituals, and fluency and connectedness. Child language was assessed at age 3 and three facets of EF (self‐regulation, sustained attention, and verbal working memory) were assessed at age 4.5. Structural equation modeling showed that dyadic interaction related to later child sustained attention and verbal working memory, indirectly through child language and directly related with child self‐regulation. This suggests that communicative interactions with caregivers that include both verbal and non‐verbal elements relate to child EF, in part through child language. Our findings have implications for the role of caregiver interactions in the development of language and cognitive skills more broadly. Research Highlights Using structural equation modeling, we examined how communicative interactions between caregivers and toddlers relate to preschool executive function skills Communicative interactions relate to later language which in turn relates to sustained attention and verbal working memory in preschool Communicative interactions relate directly to self‐regulation in preschool Associations between communicative interactions, language, and executive function vary across facets of executive function and may not be unidirectional Communicative interactions between caregivers and children provide a foundation for children's language skills, but less is known about how these interactions relate to executive function skills. Using structural equation modeling, this study found that communicative interactions at age 2 related directly to preschool self‐regulation and indirectly to preschool sustained attention and verbal working memory through child language. These findings have implications for the role of communicative interactions in the development of language and cognitive skills more broadly.