Is home environment predictive of early grammar development?

Research shows that children’s home environment (e.g., the composition of their household
and the resources available in it) has an impact on children’s language development.
However, this research has mostly been conducted among English speakers from the
minority world and has often only considered vocabulary size. This exploratory study
investigated whether home environment factors are predictive of grammar development in
Afrikaans-speaking (n = 117) and English-speaking (n = 102) toddlers in South Africa.
Moreover, potential differences between these two language groups were explored. Results
showed that home environment factors pertaining to family stability predicted two of the
three grammar scores, namely total grammar and complex phrases. Cluster analysis showed
distinct patterns of home environment factors between Afrikaans and English-speaking
households, illustrating the importance of measuring these factors even across samples from
the same country. This study shows that children’s home environment is an interconnected
system and cautions against oversimplified single-factor approaches.