Browsing by Author "Levine, Susan C."

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    Developmental Trajectories of Early Higher-Order Thinking Talk Differ for Typically Developing Children and Children With Unilateral Brain Injuries
    (2022) Frausel, Rebecca R.; Vollman, Elayne; Muzard, Antonia; Richland, Lindsey E.; Goldin-Meadow, Susan; Levine, Susan C.
    The use of higher-order thinking talk (HOTT), where speakers identify relations between representations (e.g., comparison, causality, abstraction) is examined in the spontaneous language produced by 64 typically developing (TD) and 46 brain-injured children, observed from 14-58 months at home. HOTT is less frequent in lower-income children and children with brain injuries, but effects differed depending on HOTT complexity and type of brain injury. Controlling for income, children with larger and later-occurring cerebrovascular infarcts produce fewer surface (where relations are more perceptual) and structure (where relations are more abstract) HOTT utterances than TD children. In contrast, children with smaller and earlier occurring periventricular lesions produce HOTT at comparable rates to TD children. This suggests that examining HOTT development may be an important tool for understanding the impacts of brain injury in children. Theoretically, these data reveal that both neurological (size and timing of brain injury) and environmental (family income) factors contribute to these skills.
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    Socioeconomic Variations in the Frequency of Parent Number Talk: A Meta-Analysis
    (MDPI, 2022) Dearing, Eric; Casey, Beth; Davis-Kean, Pamela E.; Eason, Sarah; Gunderson, Elizabeth; Levine, Susan C.; Laski, Elida, V; Libertus, Melissa; Lu, Linxi; McPherran Lombardi, Caitlin; Nelson, Ariadne; Ramani, Geetha; Susperreguy Jorquera, María Inés
    Using data from 12 studies, we meta-analyze correlations between parent number talk during interactions with their young children (mean sample age ranging from 22 to 79 months) and two aspects of family socioeconomics, parent education, and family income. Potential variations in correlation sizes as a function of study characteristics were explored. Statistically significant positive correlations were found between the amount of number talk in parent-child interactions and both parent education and family income (i.e., r = 0.12 for education and 0.14 for income). Exploratory moderator analyses provided some preliminary evidence that child age, as well as the average level of and variability in socioeconomic status, may moderate effect sizes. The implications of these findings are discussed with special attention to interpreting the practical importance of the effect sizes in light of family strengths and debate surrounding "word gaps".