Abstract
Oral language skills in the preschool years are predictive of
children's later reading success and literacy acquisition, and among these
language skills, vocabulary and narrative ability play important roles.
Children from low socioeconomic families face risks to their language
development and because of threats to these skills it is important to
identify factors that promote their development among high-risk groups. This
preliminary study explored two potential factors that may be related to
language skills in 56 low SES mother-child dyads (32-58 months), namely
child temperament and parenting stress. Results showed that child
temperament and parenting stress were related to children's oral language
skills. Child temperament characteristics that would likely aid social
interaction were related to narrative ability and children rated high on
emotionality had poorer receptive vocabulary skills. Parenting stress was
related to children's receptive and expressive vocabulary skills. Results
are interpreted in terms of the possible mediating role of parent-child
interactions in children's oral language skill development, and future
directions for family intervention are discussed.