Are All Conversational Turns Equal? Parental Language Input and Child Language in Children with Hearing Loss during Daily Interactions

Abstract

(1) Background: Conversational turns between parents and children contribute to the language development of children. This study aimed to examine parental language input during interactions with high numbers of conversational turns (focused interactions) and those with fewer turns (regular interactions) in children with hearing loss at home. (2) Methods: Twelve children (aged 18–47 months) with hearing loss and their parents participated. Each child wore a Language ENvironment Analysis system digital language processor for 2 days to record all conversations between the parent and child. Focused interactions were characterized by high conversational turns, while regular interactions were defined by median conversational turns. The quantity of language input was reflected by the number of words parents used during the interaction, and the quality was reflected by the mean length of parental utterances, the use of low- and high-level facilitative language techniques, lexical diversity, and the use of (de)contextualized talk. (3) Results: During focused interactions, parents exposed their children to more words than during regular interactions, while the opposite was found for lexical diversity. The quality of parental language input did not differ between the two types of interactions. Parental language input was associated with children’s spontaneous language. (4) Conclusion: Not all conversational turns are equal but are nonetheless associated with children’s language development.