Abstract
Limited studies have examined demographic differences in children’s vocabulary in longitudinal samples, while there are questions regarding the duration, direction, and magnitude of these effects across development. In this longitudinal study, we included over 400 Dutch children. Caregivers filled out N-CDIs when children were 9–11 months (measuring word comprehension, word production, and gestures) and around 2–5 years of age (measuring word production). At 2–5 years, we also administered a receptive vocabulary task in the lab. We examined demographic effects on vocabulary size across infancy and toddlerhood. We found a disadvantage for males in infants’ gestures and toddlers’ vocabulary production. We found a negative effect of maternal education on infants’ caregiver-reported vocabulary, but a positive effect on toddlers’ lab-administered receptive vocabulary. Lastly, we found a negative effect of multilingualism – but only for the lab-administered task. Examining predictors in large, longitudinal samples ensures their robustness and generalisability across development.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 709-728 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Journal of Child Language |
| Volume | 52 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 10 May 2024 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - May 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Funding
We are grateful to all families who participate in the YOUth study. YOUth is funded through the Gravitation program of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO grant number 024.001.003). A complete listing of the study investigators and study management can be found at https://www.uu.nl/en/research/youth-cohort-study/about-us/who-isinvolved . YOUth investigators and management designed and implemented the study and/or provided data but did not necessarily participate in the analysis or writing of this report. This manuscript reflects the views of the authors and may not reflect the opinions or views of the YOUth study investigators or YOUth management.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science | |
| Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek | 024.001.003 |
Keywords
- YOUth Cohort Study
- caregiver reports
- demographic effects
- language assessment
- vocabulary development