Toddlers' talk skill may rely more on dads

Now, a new study is showing the importance of dads talking to their toddlers, too.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill have found that the number of words a father uses when a child is 2 might influence the child's vocabulary a year later.

While mothers have long been considered to be the primary teachers of language to their toddlers, the study suggests fathers had even greater impact than mothers on language development in the 2-year-olds.

"The fact was, the number of different words the dad used when their child was 24 months of age predicted the child's language score at 36 months of age," said Lynne Vernon-Feagans, co-author of the study and the William C. Friday distinguished professor of Child and Family Studies at Chapel Hill's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute.

Study is limited

The study, in the November edition of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, is limited — it applied only to families with two working parents, and to children who were in day care.

But it's significant, the authors said, because it is one of the first to show the importance of fathers talking to their children. "We were a little surprised," said Vernon-Feagans.

"We've always known that dads were economically important to kids, but this suggests that the way dads interact may make a difference, especially in dual-earner families."

Vernon-Feagans and Nadya Panscofar, a graduate research assistant and a co-author, conducted the study of 100 toddlers as part of the Penn State University Health and Development Project when they were employed at that institution.

They videotaped pairs of parents and their 2-year-old children during playtime.

They found that children whose fathers used more diverse vocabularies had greater language development and that mothers' vocabulary did not significantly affect a child's language skills.

One reason for fathers' influence in vocabulary could simply be differences in how mothers and fathers talk to the children, the authors said. Fathers talk not only in nurturing terms but about work or other interests.