Effects of socioeconomic background and caregiver input quality on three-year-olds’ bilingual lexical skills

This study investigated associations between socioeconomic status (SES), input quality, and bilingual lexical skills of children raised in Maltese-dominant homes. Children aged 3;04-3;08 (<i>N</i> = 38) and their primary caregivers were categorised as low, medium, or high SES. Children's lexical skills were assessed through receptive picture name judgement and picture naming, in Maltese and English. Input quality was measured through type counts sampled during caregiver-child play at home. SES influenced children's English lexical performance, but not Maltese. Aggregated types (Maltese and English) fully mediated SES effects on English picture naming. Maltese types were positively associated with English naming and receptive judgement, suggesting cross-language effects. Further, Maltese and English types had language-specific effects on the respective naming tasks. English type counts, indexing caregiver language mixing, affected Maltese naming negatively. Results support the use of lexically diverse Maltese input in Maltese-dominant homes, complemented by judicious use of English input.