poverty and language development: roles of parenting and stress flashcards

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts, brain regions, and developmental factors related to SES and language development as discussed in the lecture notes.

Socioeconomic status (SES)

A combined measure of economic and social position; low SES is linked to differences in language development and brain function.

Family stress model

A theory that economic stress increases parental emotional distress, leading to harsher parenting and fewer nurturing opportunities that affect language development.

Parental investment model

A theory that poverty forces families to focus on basic needs, reducing time and resources available for children’s language development.

Perisylvian region

Brain areas around the Sylvian fissure implicated in language processing and reading.

Visual Word Form Area (VWFA)

Left-hemisphere region specialized for recognizing written words, part of the language network.

Inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) / anterior inferior frontal cortex

Frontal language production area (including Broca’s area) involved in articulation and syntactic processing.

Amygdala (AG)

Emotion-processing brain region; stress-related changes may affect emotion regulation and language development.

Hippocampus (HC)

Memory-related brain region; stress can affect HC volume and function, impacting language and memory."

Prefrontal cortex (PFC)

Executive function and self-regulation center; critical for language development and handling stress.

Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)

Emotion regulation and cognitive control region; connected to language development and self-regulation."

Language impairment (LI)

Difficulties in language development that can be influenced by SES and environmental factors.

Speech impairment (SI)

Difficulties with speech production/acoustic aspects of language, often linked to broader language development issues.

Prematurity

Birth before 37 weeks gestation; more common in poverty contexts and associated with language delays.

Birth weight

Lower birth weight is associated with brain differences and later language outcomes.

Fetal programming

Idea that maternal stress and SES-related factors during pregnancy program fetal brain development and future language ability.

Maternal stress

Prenatal stress effects on fetal development and child language, potentially buffered by a supportive mother–infant relationship.

Home literacy environment (HLE)

In-home access to books, literacy activities, and caregiver interactions that promote language development.

HOME inventory

A measure of the home environment’s literacy and cognitive stimulation provided to a child.

Hart and Risley study

Groundbreaking work showing that the amount and quality of parental language predicts child vocabulary growth and SES-related gaps.

Lexical diversity

Number of different words used by a speaker; higher SES often linked to greater lexical diversity in speech.

Constituent diversity

Inclusion of varied words within clauses (adjectives, adverbs, qualifiers) affecting language richness.

Clausal diversity

Variety of clause structures used; greater diversity linked to advanced language development.

Mean length of utterance (MLU)

Average length of spoken sentences; a measure of syntactic development influenced by caregiver language.

Uncinate fasciculus

White matter tract connecting prefrontal cortex to temporal regions; deprivation can disrupt language and self-regulation.

Left-right lateralization shift

Developmental shift toward left-hemisphere language dominance; delays can occur with environmental deprivation.