The nature of scientific inquiry is to focus to ask a specific question and answer it with respect to a specific population. So, whenever one reads statistics, it is important to ask, "If it is true for the group studied, is it also true in other contexts?" That is precisely the question that the Harvard Family Research Project asked about parenting behaviors as they studied Latino families with young children. This was their conclusion:
Children's cognitive and motor development skills in the first year of life are associated with parents' reports of the frequency of their language and literacy activities with their children, as well as with observations of parents' responsiveness to their children's emotional cues. In other words, children whose parents read and talk with them more and are emotionally responsive have more developed cognitive and motor competencies. These two types of parenting behaviors—frequency of language and literacy engagement and parental emotional responsiveness—are important parenting behaviors that influence development for all children, across cultural, social, and ethnic groups. (Source, emphasis mine)
The foundations are simple: love and language. They apply to all parents. So the pressing question is: How do we help parents to understand their crucial role, and assist them to fulfill that role?
