A Longitudinal Study of the Relation of Infants' Home Environments to Language Development at Age Three.

A process-oriented research strategy was employed to examine relations among various aspects of the early home environment and children's language development. The home environments of 65 infants were assessed when the infants were 12 and/or 24 months old with the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME). HOME includes six subscales: Emotional and Verbal Responsivity of the Motor, Avoidance of Restriction and Punishment, Organization of the Environment, Provision of Appropriate Play Materials, Maternal Involvement with the Child, and Opportunities for Variety in the Daily Routine. At 3 years of age each infant was administered the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities. Results demonstrated that it is possible to specify some of the parameters of early experience which are related to language development. HOME subscales "Emotional and Verbal Responsivity of Mother" and "Provision of Appropriate Play Materials" appear particulary important for language growth throughout the first two years of life, where as other environmental factors vary in their degree of relation to language development. Among the 10 psycholinguistic abilities measured, Auditory Reception, Auditory Association, and Grammatical Closure showed the strongest associations with the quality of stimulation found in the early environment. (Author/BRT)