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Mothers vocally interact with infants more frequently than fathers
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Mothers respond faster to their infant’s vocal cues compared with fathers, and infants are more likely to vocally respond to their mothers during the first months of life, according to study findings published in Pediatrics.
Katharine Johnson, MD, of the Pediatrix Medical Group in San Antonio, and colleagues assessed adult word count, infant vocalizations and conversational exchanges in 16-hour language recordings among 33 late preterm and term infants. Recordings were performed during newborn hospitalization, at home when children were aged 44 weeks postmenstrual and 7 months after birth.
Katharine Johnson
During newborn recordings, eight infants were in the neonatal ICU, and 25 infants were in rooms with their mothers.
Infants in the neonatal ICU were exposed to significantly less speech compared with infants who stayed in their mother’s room. Speech exposure increased after discharge for infants who were in the neonatal ICU and decreased among infants who stayed in their mother’s hospital room. Overall, speech exposure increased for all study participants as they matured.
During all recordings, female adults had significantly greater mean hourly word counts compared with male adults. For word counts greater than 100 words per hour, mothers were present on average for 74% of recordings vs. 47% for fathers.
Infants received an average of nearly three times as much language input from their mothers compared with their fathers from birth to age 7 months.
Infants vocally responded more often to mothers than fathers during all recordings. As age increased, infants’ response to both parents increased (P<.0001).
Mothers were the primary responders to infant vocal cues, according to researchers. There were few vocal interactions between infants and fathers without mothers present. Male adult response occurred in 27% to 30% of language blocks vs. 88% to 94% among female adults.
When aged 44 weeks postmenstrual, infant boys had higher hourly conversation counts than female infants (24 vs. 18; P=.05).
Female adults responded more frequently to infant girls than infant boys during the newborn period and at 44 weeks postmenstrual age. This difference existed 7 months after birth but was not statistically significant. Male adults had a higher response rate to male infants, but the difference was not significant.
All infants had similar response rates to adult female-initiated language blocks during all recording sessions. At 7 months, infant boys responded more frequently than infant girls (19% vs. 15%; P=.02) to adult males.
“On the basis of these findings, both mothers and fathers should be informed about the important benefits of parent talk and a rich language environment on their infant’s language development and later academic success,” the researchers wrote.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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