Linguistic Environment of Secondborn Children

The present study investigated whether the presence of an older sibling affects the language secondborn children hear. In particular, we investigated whether mothers' distribution of language across the three functional categories of metalingual, referential and social-regulative would differ from a mother-child dyadic to a mother-child-sibling triadic context, in support of Nelson's (1981) hypothesis. In addition, we investigated how older siblings' speech to both the child and the mother in the triadic context contributes to the linguistic environment of the secondborn children. Fourteen English-speaking secondborn children were videotaped at 21 months of age in two 25-minute free-play sessions, one with their mothers and the other with their mothers and older siblings. Mothers' and older siblings' utterances were analysed in terms of three function categories. The results provided evidence for Nelson's hypothesis that in the triadic context, mothers used more language centred around children's activities and social exchanges (social-regulative language), whereas in the dyadic context, they used more language-focused language (meta-lingual language). Furthermore, older siblings' utterances to the secondborn in the triadic context were overwhelmingly social-regulative, whereas their utterances to the mother were more metalingual and referential. These results suggest that linguistic environment of secondborn children is qualitatively different from that of firstborn children.