The contributions of mothers' and children's oral language to children's school readiness were longitudinally examined among 75 low-income mothers and children. When children were 36 months, mothers' and children's lexical diversity, mothers' wh-questions, and children's PPVT-III scores were assessed from play interactions. At pre-kindergarten, mothers and children shared a personal narrative, and various aspects of mothers' and children's narratives were coded. Children were assessed on their knowledge about print, letter-word identification, mathematical skills and sustained attention, and scores were combined into a single factor of school readiness. Structural equation analyses yielded two pathways to school readiness. Mothers' wh-questions and lexical diversity predicted children's PPVT-III scores at 36 months, which in turn predicted children's school readiness. Mothers' 36-month lexical diversity predicted mothers' narrative prompts, which related to children's narrative contributions. Children's narrative contributions in turn predicted school readiness. Mother-child conversations support the school readiness of children from low-income backgrounds.

The language of mothers, fathers, and children was examined in 50 low-income families. Mother-child and father-child dyads were videotaped separately during play when children were 2;0 years old. Language transcriptions were coded for communicative diversity, word types, and grammatical complexity in parents and children. Motherchild and father-child conversations were similar and were strongly correlated at the dyad level, although differences emerged in the repetitions of children's utterances, closed-ended questions, affirmations, and action directives. Mothers' and fathers' language related to children's language in specific ways. Individual children experience relatively enriched or impoverished language environments, rather than one parent "compensating" for the other. This may explain why some low-income children lag in their language development early on, whereas others are "on track."

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