Variation in Young Children’s Preschool Language Environments: The Role of Classroom Social Networks

Abstract

Reasearch findings: Young children’s verbal interactions with teachers and peers in preschool settings are a key mechanism for development. Evidence suggests individual differences in children’s access to verbal interactions with teachers and peers in the classroom, yet such evidence comes primarily from brief, infrequent observations, and reveals little about how children’s social network experience shapes access to talk in the classroom. This study examined the extent to which preschool children’s interactions with teachers and peers vary within and across classrooms, and whether aspects of the classroom social network help explain that variation. Children’s verbal interactions were recorded at eight timepoints throughout the school year. Teacher-reported sociometrics were used to calculate social network indices. Multilevel models revealed substantial heterogeneity in all outcomes with meaningful variance within and between classrooms. Results indicated that over time, incoming utterances from teachers and teacher-child conversational turns increased, whereas child-peer conversational turns decreased. Both child- and classroom-level social network indices were significantly associated with children’s verbal interactions with teachers and peers. Practice or Policy: Results highlight the importance of identifying children at the periphery of the classroom social network, as these children are most at risk of being isolated from verbal interactions in the classroom.