The role of socioeconomic factors in language development in young Lebanese children

Early language development has a great influence on
children's overall wellbeing and later academic success. While
oral language development may proceed at a relatively fast
pace in the early years, there is considerable variation across
children that is linked to external (environmental, social and
economic status) and internal (perceptual, cognitive and
linguistic) factors. In terms of external factors, socioeconomic
status (SES) has been shown to powerfully predict language
development, in the Western world. Yet, little is known about
how this or other SES factors play out in a non-Western
context. This study aims to fill this gap by defining contextspecific
SES factors that are relevant to Lebanon and then
examining any potential associations between these factors
and early language development. We aim to recruit 480
families of children aged between 12 and 48 months, balanced
for gender, geographical regions and SES. Two questionnaires
will be administered to parents: a socio-demographic
questionnaire eliciting data on the families' SES and a
sociolinguistic questionnaire eliciting data on their language
practices and beliefs and their involvement in supporting
language development. Measures of the children's early
language skills (vocabulary and grammar) will be obtained
throughout the use of the parental CDI-L report as well as
recorded language samples of spontaneous interactions
between children and their parents. Results of this study will
enable Early Years professionals working with Arabic-speaking
children to identify early risk and protective indicators
associated with later language skills, to support the design of
preventative efficient interventions and to enhance school
readiness.