CHE Seminar Series: Chasing Thirty Million Words: Parental speech, gender, and early child development in Timor-Leste
Child-Directed Speech (CDS) is fundamental to early cognitive development, yet children in low-resource settings receive substantially less CDS than their peers in higher-resource contexts. We implement a randomized light-touch CDS intervention targeting either mothers or fathers, combining traditional testing methods with a novel automated speech analysis technology to evaluate effects on child language development. The intervention provided information on CDS benefits and practical implementation strategies through a video and calendar, and included a picture book to address families' limited access to children's books. Results show the intervention significantly improved child language development—equivalent to nearly a year of developmental progress—but only when targeting mothers, not fathers. The primary mechanism appears to be behavioural change rather than belief updating among mothers.
Speaker profile
Dr Diana Contreras Suarez is a Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute for Applied Economics and Social Research at The University of Melbourne. Her research is driven by how public policy improves the lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged populations, usually developed in partnership with governments, multilateral agencies or charities. As an applied development economist, she uses statistics, experimental and quasi-experimental methods to understand the determinants of people’s health, education and employment outcomes and to evaluate the effect of social programs. Her work covers the fields of cash transfers, child development, child and maternal health and gender inequality. Her research has been published in journals such as Economic Development and Cultural Change, Journal of Population Economics and World Development. is Professor of Economics, Deputy Dean, Research and Innovation, School of Economics, Finance & Marketing, RMIT University. She received her PhD from Michigan State University in 2006. Before joining RMIT, she was Charles and Joan Haworth Professor of Economics at Florida State University. Her research is a combination of econometrics methods and applied studies. Her theoretical research focuses on linear and nonlinear panel data models with missing data. Several of her papers are published in top econometrics journals – Journal of Econometrics and Journal of Applied Econometrics. She also does applied research on labour economics, economics of education, and health economics.
Weekly seminar series
As part of our Centre's vibrant research culture, we host a weekly seminar series. Visiting and invited researchers present current research relating to the economics of health and wellbeing, and the healthcare sector. Visitors are welcome to join these sessions where discussion and debate is encouraged.
For further information on our seminar series, please contact Trong-Anh.Trinh@monash.edu.
Event Details
- Date:
- 27 August 2025 at 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
- Venue:
- Caulfield campus, Building H, level 9, room H9.14
- Categories:
- CHE Seminar; General
Description
Child-Directed Speech (CDS) is fundamental to early cognitive development, yet children in low-resource settings receive substantially less CDS than their peers in higher-resource contexts. We implement a randomized light-touch CDS intervention targeting either mothers or fathers, combining traditional testing methods with a novel automated speech analysis technology to evaluate effects on child language development. The intervention provided information on CDS benefits and practical implementation strategies through a video and calendar, and included a picture book to address families' limited access to children's books. Results show the intervention significantly improved child language development—equivalent to nearly a year of developmental progress—but only when targeting mothers, not fathers. The primary mechanism appears to be behavioural change rather than belief updating among mothers.
Speaker profile
Dr Diana Contreras Suarez is a Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute for Applied Economics and Social Research at The University of Melbourne. Her research is driven by how public policy improves the lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged populations, usually developed in partnership with governments, multilateral agencies or charities. As an applied development economist, she uses statistics, experimental and quasi-experimental methods to understand the determinants of people’s health, education and employment outcomes and to evaluate the effect of social programs. Her work covers the fields of cash transfers, child development, child and maternal health and gender inequality. Her research has been published in journals such as Economic Development and Cultural Change, Journal of Population Economics and World Development. is Professor of Economics, Deputy Dean, Research and Innovation, School of Economics, Finance & Marketing, RMIT University. She received her PhD from Michigan State University in 2006. Before joining RMIT, she was Charles and Joan Haworth Professor of Economics at Florida State University. Her research is a combination of econometrics methods and applied studies. Her theoretical research focuses on linear and nonlinear panel data models with missing data. Several of her papers are published in top econometrics journals – Journal of Econometrics and Journal of Applied Econometrics. She also does applied research on labour economics, economics of education, and health economics.
Weekly seminar series
As part of our Centre's vibrant research culture, we host a weekly seminar series. Visiting and invited researchers present current research relating to the economics of health and wellbeing, and the healthcare sector. Visitors are welcome to join these sessions where discussion and debate is encouraged.
For further information on our seminar series, please contact Trong-Anh.Trinh@monash.edu.