Spanish language development and trajectories of young children of Mexican immigrants

The purpose of this study was to identify predictors of language maintenance versus attrition and to describe the Spanish language trajectories of group preschool-aged children of Mexican-immigrant descent. Specifically, this study investigated the relationship between observed child language behaviors, mother-child interaction characteristics, family/child language usage and exposure factors; and Spanish lexical diversity (vocabulary usage) in preschool aged children. Observed child language behaviors included code-mixing, percentage of errors, and use of general term/nondescriptive words. Mother child interaction variables included maternal intrusiveness, maternal hostility, and quality of relationship. Language usage and exposure variables included language usage among family members as well as preschool enrollment and language usage with peers. Measurements from language transcripts, video samples, and parental surveys were collected for 19 children at roughly 3 and 4 years of age. Ten children were also seen at a third time point, roughly at 5 years of age; these children were administered the Spanish Language Assessment Procedure, a non-standardized Spanish language assessment.;Regression models were employed to explore how groupings and combinations of variables were related to the outcome variable. Primary analyses revealed that code-mixing and use of general term/non-descriptive words were not predictive of first language (L1) attrition, while percentage of errors was predictive of L1 attrition. A variety of verb usage errors were observed in the children demonstrating language attrition; interestingly, these difficulties are also observed in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Mother-child interaction variables and family language usage variables were not predictive of L1 maintenance or loss; however, years of preschool enrollment was positively associated with growth in Spanish vocabulary. Given the negative association between preschool enrollment and percentage of errors, it may be the case that language experiences afforded through preschool programs (even programs that involve some level of English exposure) support L1 maintenance. Exploratory analyses of language trajectories demonstrated the variability seen in bilingual children. Two subjects experiencing L1 attrition demonstrated different language behaviors and L1 attrition under differing language usage and exposure conditions. Implications for differentiating L1 attrition and SLI are provided.