Child-Directed Communication in Two Diverse Cultural Contexts

Caregivers and other adults modify their speech when addressing infants, but there is significant variability across societies regarding the prevalence of this behavior, known as infant-directed speech (IDS). For example, some studies report significantly less IDS in some less-well-studied societies – including families on Tanna, Vanuatu. This is surprising given that IDS is widely assumed to be a prominent feature of human caregiving, based on research with sample populations in urban regions. Given the variability across cultures in the amount of IDS that children hear in the first few years of life, it is possible that IDS is only one of a suite of important caregiving behaviours that are produced during interactions with infants and young children. To have a better understanding of the range of variability in infant-directed speech and communication with young children, we examined 70 semi-structured video recorded observations of caregivers and their 18- to 24-month-old children living on Tanna, Vanuatu, and Vancouver, Canada. The video observations were 10 minutes long and were collected between 2013 and 2018. We had two kinds of observations – one where we provided a set of toys and one without toys. We determined the duration of time caregivers spent engaging in both verbal and non-verbal interactions with their children using five different interaction codes: Infant-directed 1) speech, 2) behavior, 3) communication (simultaneous speech and behavior), 4) Solo (no interaction), and 4) ANI (attentive non-interference, which was when caregivers looked at their infant but did not direct any behaviours). Caregivers in both societies spent a comparable amount of time interacting with their children during the observations. However, the specific modes of interaction varied across cultural contexts. Caregivers in Vancouver were slightly more likely to use IDS across both sessions, whereas those on Tanna used more IDB, particularly in the Toys session, and more IDC, particularly in the No toys session. Solo interactions were ere minimal, andANI was more frequent in Tanna across both sessions, but particularly when infants had toys. This study aims to contribute to a broader understanding of children’s early experiences with caregivers, moving beyond the urban and western societies that have dominated most of the existing research. The findings provide further evidence in support of variability in the social context of young children across diverse social contexts.