Babies, TVDVD, and Language

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Babies, TV/DVD, and Language

• Deborah L. Linebarger, Ph.D.
• Annenberg Childrens Media Lab
• University of Pennsylvania

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Acknowledgements

• U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special
  Education Programs (H324D980066)
• Directed Projects for Beacons of Excellence to
  identify programs or practices achieving
  exemplary results for children
• PI Dale Walker, U. of Kansas
• U. of Kansas Staff
• Kathryn Bigelow, Cathleen Small, Sanna
  Harjusola-Webb, Daniela Rodrigues, and Stacie
  Kirk

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Purpose of Study

• Primary Purpose
• Beacons of Excellence in Communication
  longitudinal project
• Examined parent, child care provider, and child
  interactions and language from age 6 months to 30
  months
• Secondary Purpose
• Along with other information collected from
  parents, we also asked them to describe their
  childs TV viewing every three months

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Background Information

• Major developmental task facing infants/toddlers
  is learning to communicate
• Generally robust (most children learn to talk)
• Higher-order skills are more susceptible to
  varying amounts of linguistic input
• Vocabulary
• Expressive Language
• Linguistic input can include parents, caregivers,
  peers, media

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Participants

• Child Participants
• 51 children (23 boys and 28 girls)
• Average age of entry into project 9.1 months
  (Range 6 months to 24 months)
• 55 first-born, 36 with sibling
• Average parent education 15.7 years
• Average family income
• 64 incomes 55,000
• 27 incomes between 20,000 - 55,000
• 9 incomes

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Measures

• Family Information childs birth order, size of
  family, income, parents education
• Viewing Logs age of first interest amount,
  type, and frequency of viewing
• General Cognitive Functioning Bayley Scales of
  Infant Development-2nd Ed. (BSID)
• Vocabulary Development MacArthur Communicative
  Development Inventory (MCDI) Word Production
  Scale
• Expressive Language Early Childhood Indicator
  (ECI)6-minute naturalistic play session number
  of single word and multi word utterances
  (available on-line Juniper Gardens Childrens
  Project)

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Analytic Approach

• Hierarchical Linear Models (HLM)
• Age centered at 12, 15, 18, and 30 months
• Statistically controlled for
• parent background composite (i.e., parents
  education, income, occupational status)
• General cognitive performance assessed at each
  wave of assessment (i.e., BSID)

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Analytic Approach

• First Set of Analyses
• Cumulative viewing at 12, 15, 18 months used to
  predict outcomes at each of those ages (e.g.,
  cumulative viewing of Baby DVDs through 12 months
  used to predict 12 month outcomes)
• Cumulative viewing through 18 months used to
  predict outcomes at 30 months (e.g., cumulative
  viewing of Baby DVDs through 18 months used to
  predict outcomes at 30 months)
• Second Set of Analyses
• Revised, More Expansive Viewing Categories
• Created Based on Combination of Research Since
  First Paper and Theoretical Basis
• Cumulative viewing through 30 months used to
  predict 30 month outcomes
• Categories Short Story Narratives, Audience
  Participation, On-Air Live Action/Variety, Live
  Action/Variety DVDs, Baby DVDs

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First Set of AnalysesEarly Viewing Predicting
Concurrent Outcomes and 30-Month Outcomes

• Viewing/Outcomes at 12 Months
• Viewing/Outcomes at 15 Months
• Viewing/Outcomes at 18 Months
• Viewing Through 18 Months ? 30 Month Outcomes

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12 Months Level 2 Results for Expressive Language
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15 Months Level 2 Results for Expressive Language
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18 Months Level 2 Results for Expressive Language
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18 Months ? 30 Months Level 2 Results for
Expressive Language
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30 months ? 30 Months
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Conclusions

• Associations are few between 12m and 18m
• Early cumulative viewing (through 18m) not a
  strong predictor of outcomes at 30m
• Some of the first effects show up with growth
  rate and acceleration
• Intercepts tend to have fewer relationships
  earlier on

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Long and Short Lookers

• Average number of minutes viewed per week

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Long and Short Lookers

• Average minutes viewed during a single reported
  viewing session

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Second Set of AnalysesBaby DVDs

• Pre-Linguistic Linguistic Communication at 18
  Months

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Communication Skills

• Early Communication Indicator
• Total Communication
• Pre-Linguistic Gestures and Vocalizations
• Linguistic Single Words and Multi-Word
  Utterances
• MacArthur CDI Long Form
• Word Production (Expressive Vocabulary Size)
• Preschool Language Scale 3
• Expressive Language Subscale

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ECI Total Communication
6m 12m 18m 24m 30m
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ECI Gestures
6m 12m 18m 24m 30m
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ECI Vocals
6m 12m 18m 24m 30m
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ECI Single Words
6m 12m 18m 24m 30m
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ECI Multi-Word Utterances
6m 12m 18m 24m 30m
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MacArthur CDI (Vocabulary Said)
6m 12m 18m 24m 30m
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Preschool Language Scale 3 (Expressive Subscale
Only)
6m 12m 18m 24m 30m
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Baby Videos Conclusion

• Expressive language
• Administered by program staff
• Direct assessment of expressive language use
• Baby videos linked to more pre-linguistic forms
  of communication
• Not viewing baby videos linked to more linguistic
  forms of communication
• Vocabulary measure is a parent report measure
• Middle/upper families tendency to over-report
  (Hofferth, 2004)
• Those using baby videos may believe that these
  should help their kids
• PLS is a standardized measure of expressive
  language
• Helps initially and then drops off
• Direction of effects
• Individual differences
• Media causes language differences
• Transactional relations (early learning
  hypothesis and chain of effects)
• Repetition is key
• Comparing experience with age

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Stay Tuned

• Parent Survey
• 1454 parents reported on children between 8m and
  8 yrs
• Oversample of Low Income and American Indian
• Time use diaries (with media content across TV,
  DVD, web, computer, video games)
• Parent measures included
• Typology (in the Baumrind sense)
• Reported quality of parent-child interactions
• Parenting behaviors
• Outcomes included
• Executive function (beginning at 2yo)
• Language (short form MacArthur between 8m 36m)
• Literacy (we developed it)
• Other measures
• Temperament

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Stay Tuned

• 965 (4.2) mentions of any media use
• 146 mentions the parent did not know the title of
  the content
• Of the media content
• 67.8 TV
• 8.8 DVD
• 7.3 radio
• 7.3 books
• 2.6 video games
• 1.3 web

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Stay Tuned

• Background noise TV, music, or both
• 24.1 of primary activities had TV on in the
  background
• 19.3 of primary activities had music on in the
  background
• 8.2 had both

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Stay Tuned

• Moms
• 65.3 of TV time with mom
• 8.2 of book time with mom
• Dads
• 63.6 of TV time with dad
• 6.9 of book time with dad
• Siblings
• 67.0 of TV time with siblings
• 6.3 of book time with siblings

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Stay Tuned

• Testing effects of parenting efficacy on media
  use as a parenting tool
• Bedroom TVs Parents who reported their children
  were easier to handle and who reported using more
  positive parenting practices
• No Bedroom TVs parents who reported their
  children were more difficult to handle and who
  reported using less positive parenting practices
• Creating a scale to get at using media as a
  parenting tool