Kia Tīmata Pai: Parent- and Teacher-Reported Oral Language and Self-regulation in a Large Diverse Sample of New Zealand Toddlers

Abstract

Oral language and self-regulation are both critical for lifelong development. Both skills are developing rapidly in the toddler years, when informant-report measures are often used to assess such development. Yet research comparing parent and teacher reports of these skills in toddlers is limited. The present study compared parent and teacher reports of children’s oral language (gesture, vocabulary, syntax) and self-regulation (effortful control) with a large, ethnically diverse sample of New Zealand toddlers (N = 1481; 688 girls and 737 boys; Mage = 20.60 mo, SD = 3.38, range = 13-30). The sample included primarily New Zealand European, Māori, Asian, and Pacific ethnicities, from low to high socioeconomic status (SES). Parent and teacher reports of oral language were significantly moderately correlated whereas ratings of self-regulation were weakly, yet still significantly, correlated. Parents reported steeper age-related differences in children’s oral language and effortful control than teachers. Both parents and teachers reported greater effortful control for girls than boys. Few differences by ethnicity were noted in multivariable models except for a Māori advantage for gestures and a non-European advantage for effortful control (parent-report only). Teachers reported more differences in both oral language and effortful control as a function of family SES than did parents. These findings highlight that both parent and teacher reports of oral language and self-regulation are important, but parents may be particularly sensitive reporters of children's oral language and teachers of children's self-regulation.