Contributions of nursery rhymes and parent–child reading to young children's language development: Variation across family socioeconomic status

Children's early family language experiences are closely associated with later language development. Although parent–child reading promotes language growth, families from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds often face economic and educational barriers to its implementation. Nursery rhymes, which integrate music and language features, require fewer resources and less specialized parental instruction, making them a promising alternative. Using 3-year longitudinal data from Taiwan (N = 1,959, Asian, 51.7% boys, Mage = 35.47 months at Time 1), this study simultaneously examined the effects of nursery rhymes and parent–child reading with children's language. Both predicted language development, with nursery rhymes (β = .108) showing stronger effects than parent–child reading (β = .065) among low-SES children aged three to four. The implications of our findings for early language interventions are discussed.