Dad's vocabulary affects child's language skills

In families where both parents work outside of the home, fathers who use a wide variety of words when chatting with their children may be strengthening their youngsters' language skills, a new study shows.

Researchers who watched 2-year-olds interacting with their parents found that the more diverse vocabulary a dad used in these encounters, the more highly developed the child's language skills were at age 3. "It seems to be important for fathers to be talking to their kids and to be using a variety of words to their child," Nadya Pancsofar, a graduate research assistant at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and study co-author.

» Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 2006