Latin American caregivers’ language input and children’s cognitive and socioemotional development

Introduction Young children develop crucial cognitive and socioemotional skills through everyday interactions with their caregivers within specific sociocultural contexts. Most research on the associations between the quantity and quality (e.g. linguistic complexity, conceptual content, and interactional features) of caregivers’ language input and children’s development has been conducted with samples from North America and Western Europe. This is the first narrative review of studies examining the associations between Latin American caregivers’ language input and children’s cognitive and socioemotional development from infancy through preschool.Method A content analysis of studies published between 2010 and 2025 was conducted.Results Significant within-group variability in how caregivers’ language input was found. Caregivers’ linguistic complexity and conceptual content varied across developmental periods, whereas the interactional nature of caregivers’ input differed across ethnic groups.Conclusion We highlight four recommendations: 1) move beyond restrictive definitions of language input by developing culturally relevant operationalisations; 2) broaden measures of both linguistic complexity and conceptual content across developmental periods; 3) expand research to underrepresented communities to capture variation and greater nuance in interactional styles; and 4) integrate structured tasks and observational assessments of child development.