Effortful control and expressive language in deaf or hard-of-hearing children: The contributions of caregiver language and parenting stress.
Kristina Bowdrie, Rachael Frush Holt, William Kronenberger
PMID 41524190WHAT IT FOUND
For deaf or hard-of-hearing children with poor self-regulation, rich caregiver language during play may buffer against expressive language delays.
This benefit disappears if the caregiver reports high parenting stress, suggesting stress undermines the protective effect of input.
Key findings
01When caregiver language input was low, children with higher effortful control had better expressive language; when input was moderate or high, effortful control was no longer related to expressive language.
02Parenting stress moderated the link between effortful control and expressive language: at low stress, better regulation predicted better language, but at moderate or high stress, this link disappeared.
03Children's effortful control was negatively correlated with parenting stress, meaning caregivers who rated their children as more regulated reported lower stress.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot determine if effortful control causes better language or if the relationship is bidirectional. The sample size was small (59 children), which limits the power to detect effects, particularly in the parenting stress model where the overall fit was only marginally significant. The average level of parenting stress in the sample was within the typical range, so results may not apply to families with clinically significant stress. The play interaction may not have captured the effects of parenting stress on language use as well as other contexts, such as routine tasks.
Declared interests
Funding was provided by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. No other conflicts of interest are reported in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the lack of a direct correlation between effortful control and expressive language as evidence that self-regulation is unimportant. The relationship is conditional: self-regulation matters most when caregiver language input is low or parenting stress is low, but these factors change the outcome.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →