Paternal and Maternal Speech at 3 Months Postpartum: An Exploratory Study on the Effect of Parental Role and Birth Weight

Abstract

Recent research highlights a growing interest in early interactions between fathers and their infants, acknowledging the significant influence these interactions have on developmental outcomes. However, there is a limited understanding of the specific characteristics of paternal infant-directed speech (IDS), especially in the context of premature birth. This study aimed to analyze the functional and morpho-syntactic features of paternal IDS to full-term (FT) and preterm (PT) infants at 3 months, comparing it with maternal communicative style. Additionally, the study explored the influence of the severity of preterm birth according to birth weight, further distinguishing between extremely low-birth-weight (ELBW) and very low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants. Seventy-one father–infant and mother–infant dyads (24 FT, 22 ELBW, 25 VLBW) were recruited at 3 months (corrected age for PTs). Parent–infant interactions were video recorded to assess lexical, syntactic, and functional aspects of paternal and maternal speech. Results revealed lower verbosity and lexical variability in paternal IDS compared to the maternal one. No differences were found between parents of the PT and FT groups. Overall, these findings could contribute to better understanding the patterns of parent–infant communications in both FT and PT dyads, confirming the importance of involving both mothers and fathers from the early stages of development.

Keywords

• infant-directed speech
• mothers
• fathers
• preterm birth