The Suffering Chatty Mothers

A cautionary tale about articles, and especially headlines, on language studies & motherhood

Is she chatty or is she in pain because she is worried about taking pain relief? No one will ever know. Image by Thiebaud Faix for Unsplash.

One of the things I discuss in Mother Tongue Tied and probably one of the main points of the entire book is the deficit-based rhetoric we come across constantly in language and motherhood. It is a nuanced topic, especially when it comes to language development in children because every child and every family is different. But there are also many consequences to consistently telling caregivers, predominantly mothers, they need to do more (in language or in mothering), or they are not doing/speaking/communicating enough with their children, even if it is in the guise of trying to foster connection and language development. It is tricky and there are many factors to consider. Even so, I think there is still far too much implicit, or sometimes explicit, mother-blaming that needs to stop.

I am going to throw media into the mix here because it is its own beast and, never forget, a business. As a journalist, I know exactly how editors come up with headlines and which parts of studies are considered the “most interesting” to editors who, in turn, hope the resulting exciting and enticing headline¹ leads to clicks and subscriptions. Words are often twisted, certain stats are amplified, others are obscured, and the hope is no one is the wiser. Often, the rest of the important, albeit more boring information from a study, is buried somewhere far down in an article, or not included at all.

I have been meaning to write about two recent studies I came across about language development in children and motherhood for a while now, but especially how these studies are presented online in article form. The first study is about the relationship of acetaminophen (paracetamol) use during pregnancy with early language development in children. The second study examined heritage culture influences on the roles of adult and child in the conversations Latina immigrant mothers in the United States have with their young children. 

Here are some of the headlines for the articles reporting on these studies:

As is always the case with medical information, everyone should speak with their own medical care providers because again, we are all different and every situation is singular. But what frustrates me about the paracetamol study especially is that many pregnant people who read something like this will then continue to be in pain, not take pain relief in fear they will cause harm to their baby’s language development. A pregnant person in pain is not the answer either and can also cause distress for the baby and the mother.

Knowledge is power so knowing all the information is essential, but so is making sure those who consume the information have all the information. Very few people will go and read the actual study and that is the issue, so they consume bits and pieces offered by media, and sometimes, only the headline.

But if you are a study reader, I always say a good place to start is the strengths and limitations of the study as well as the sample size. The paracetamol study for example, had a lot of limitations. This does not mean it is not important or does not warrant further investigation, but it is not as simple as saying paracetamol in the third trimester leads to language development delays in children, especially without reporting all those fine-print details. One thing that is always tricky with certain studies, including many of the linguistics studies I come across, is the idea of self-reporting. We are not always accurate, we forget, we embellish, we exaggerate. This too has to be taken into consideration.

As for the study on heritage culture influences on conversations between Latina mother and child, I think it is a vital one as it highlights how not all cultures and languages consider communication with children in the same way and that is OK and needs to be taken into consideration, always. We do not need to be constantly engaging with children or eliciting conversations from small children to prove something as caregivers, although, that is often how many mothers, monolingual and multilingual, feel because of societal expectation and judgement.

However, when it comes to the way the study was presented in this article, it takes the focus off that important finding and instead sensationalizes the topic by stating “bilingual Latina mothers have dual personalities”. (Dual personalities because of bilingualism is another dangerous territory as it makes the distinction between them and us and is a form of othering – also something I write about in Mother Tongue Tied.)

As my friend and colleague Louise, who sent me the link to the study on Latina mothers said: “Can’t decide whether they are trying to make women sound interesting or crazy!” I will let you decide!

Consider this your friendly neighbourhood reminder to always be sceptical of articles reporting scientific studies, especially the headline, always scroll to the end of an article for the least exciting but vital information, and although it is time-consuming, cross-reference with the actual published study while also considering where it originated, its sample size and limitations.

Thank you for reading.

1. It is not lost on me that I try to entice you to read my newsletter with a catchy headline!