Working Paper: NBER ID: w30837
Authors: Flavio Cunha; Marsha Gerdes; Qinyou Hu; Snejana Nihtianova
Abstract: Research documents that parental beliefs influence early investments in children, which, in turn, determine early human capital and, eventually, other skills children acquire in later stages of the lifecycle, such as literacy. Our paper reports the results of an experimental evaluation of the LENA Start Program, a group- and center-based parenting program that teaches the science of early language development, models verbal interaction behaviors with children, and provides objective feedback to improve the early language environment. The intervention changes parental beliefs and impacts the quantity and quality of parental linguistic input.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: I21; I24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| parental beliefs (J13) | parental linguistic input (C67) |
| parental beliefs (J13) | conversational turns (Z13) |
| parental beliefs (J13) | adult words (Y50) |
| Lena Start program (C87) | parental linguistic input (C67) |
| Lena Start program (C87) | conversational turns (Z13) |
| Lena Start program (C87) | adult words (Y50) |