Family Talk: Sources of Support for the Development of Decontextualized Language Skills

Abstract

This article reports the findings regarding the home language environments of the children in the Home-School Study of Language and Literacy Development. Home visits were made to collect interview data about family practices and to tape record specific types of talk between child and mother including a book reading, a toy play, and an elicited report. A mealtime conversation was also recorded by the family after the visit without the experimenter present. This article discusses the results of the analyses of these tasks reporting the central tendencies of the measures and particular styles of interaction between mother and child within tasks and across tasks. Developmental changes that occur in these dyads are also examined. The home environments of three selected children are profiled as well.