Child‐Directed Speech Is Infrequent in a Forager‐Farmer Population: A Time Allocation Study. Issue 3 (2nd November 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cristia, Alejandrina; Dupoux, Emmanuel; Gurven, Michael; Stieglitz, Jonathan
• Is Part Of: Child development. Volume 90:Issue 3(2019)
• Page Start: 759
• Page End: 773
• Publication Date: 2017-11-02
• Subjects: Child development -- Periodicals; Child psychology -- Periodicals; Child Development -- Periodicals; Child Development; Pediatrics -- Periodicals; Pedicatrics; 305.231
• DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12974
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0009-3920

Abstract

Abstract : This article provides an estimation of how frequently, and from whom, children aged 0–11 years ( N s between 9 and 24) receive one‐on‐one verbal input among Tsimane forager‐horticulturalists of lowland Bolivia. Analyses of systematic daytime behavioral observations reveal < 1 min per daylight hour is spent talking to children younger than 4 years of age, which is 4 times less than estimates for others present at the same time and place. Adults provide a majority of the input at 0–3 years of age but not afterward. When integrated with previous work, these results reveal large cross‐cultural variation in the linguistic experiences provided to young children. Consideration of more diverse human populations is necessary to build generalizable theories of language acquisition.