Title: Babies, TVDVD, and Language
1Babies, TV/DVD, and Language
- Deborah L. Linebarger, Ph.D.
- Annenberg Childrens Media Lab
- University of Pennsylvania
2Acknowledgements
- 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
3Purpose 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
4Background 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
5Participants
- 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
6Measures
- 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)
7Analytic 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)
8Analytic 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
9First 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
1012 Months Level 2 Results for Expressive Language
1115 Months Level 2 Results for Expressive Language
1218 Months Level 2 Results for Expressive Language
1318 Months ? 30 Months Level 2 Results for
Expressive Language
1430 months ? 30 Months
15Conclusions
- 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
16Long and Short Lookers
- Average number of minutes viewed per week
17Long and Short Lookers
- Average minutes viewed during a single reported
viewing session
18Second Set of AnalysesBaby DVDs
- Pre-Linguistic Linguistic Communication at 18
Months
19Communication 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
20ECI Total Communication
6m 12m 18m 24m 30m
21ECI Gestures
6m 12m 18m 24m 30m
22ECI Vocals
6m 12m 18m 24m 30m
23ECI Single Words
6m 12m 18m 24m 30m
24ECI Multi-Word Utterances
6m 12m 18m 24m 30m
25MacArthur CDI (Vocabulary Said)
6m 12m 18m 24m 30m
26Preschool Language Scale 3 (Expressive Subscale
Only)
6m 12m 18m 24m 30m
27Baby 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
28Stay 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
29Stay 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
30Stay 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
31Stay 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
32Stay 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