Exploring parents’ utterances during free play in Hong Kong: The associations with language complexity and lexical diversity

This study had the objective of exploring the parent–child interaction pattern during free play. The current research examined parental utterances in terms of parents’ linguistic features and the communitive functions of the language used (e.g., communication–eliciting and communication–inhibiting languages) and assessed the language production of their children during free play. As part of a larger scale study, the present research included data of 97 Hong Kong parent–child dyads, where their interaction during free play was documented through audio and video-taped recordings. The transcripts of the recording were analyzed for the lexical diversity and language complexity of parents’ and children’s utterances, and coded for the parental sensitivity and communicative functions in the parental utterances. Coding data showed that a notable number of Hong Kong parents’ utterances were direct commands and close-ended questions; these were 19.6% and 19.3%, respectively, of all utterances in a 15 min of free play. Hierarchical linear regression results showed that asking questions could significantly elicit more children’s language output. However, parents’ communication-inhibition languages (direct commands and negative talks) have negatively associated with children’s language output quality (language complexity and lexical diversity), over the effects of parental language input quality and parental sensitivity. The present research is one of the few studies examining parent–child interaction during free play in Hong Kong. Findings highlight the influence of parental language on children’ language output and underscore the importance of promoting playful, child-centered interaction styles. Copyright © 2025 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V.