SES related differences in children’s early language skills influence their later language development. Parent-child verbal interactions during the initial years of children’s life play an important role in children’s early language development. Although both mothers’ and fathers’ early language input contributes to children’s language skills, until recently mothers were considered as the only primary caregivers of children and thus have been the focus of majority of the research in this area. The father’s role in a family has evolved in the past three decades meaning that fathers are increasingly spending more time with their children and contributing to their overall development. The evidence from limited research comparing mothers’ and fathers’ early speech with their preschool aged children is mixed. Also, some findings, mainly derived from research on mothers, suggest that parents socialize their sons and daughters differently, which reflects in early parent-child verbal interactions. In contrast, some research suggests that children, by the function of their own gender, elicit speech differently from their parents. Furthermore, there is an indication of differences in mother-son, mother-daughter, father-son, and father-daughter early talk. Considering the important role of parent and child gender in early parent-child verbal interactions, the current study aimed to compare parental quantity/quality and children’s quantity of language among the four independent groups of father-daughter, father-son, mother-daughter, and mother-son. A total of 112, mainly African-American, parent-child dyads were recruited for this study. Specifically, the sample included 32 father-daughter, 28 father-son, 26 mother-daughter, and 25 mother-son dyads. The convenience sample of children (37-60 months of age) and their respective mother or father were recruited from preschools known to serve a socio-economically disadvantaged population in the southeastern US. Semi-structured parent-child play sessions were videotaped at the child’s child-care facility for approximately 15-minutes. The videotapes were coded for parents’ quantity and quality of language and children’s quantity of language. The results indicated no differences among father-daughter, father-son, mother-daughter, and mother-son groups in terms of parental quantity/quality of language and children’s quantity of language. Suggesting the bi-directional nature of early parent-child interaction process, the exploratory analysis revealed significant differences in correlations among parental quantity/quality and child quantity of language across the four groups of this study.
