In families with two working parents, fathers may have more impact1 a child’s language development than mothers, a new study2.Researchers 3 92 families from 11 child care centers before their children were a year old, interviewing each to establish income, 4 of education and child care arrangements. 5, it was a group of well-educated middle-class families, 6 married parents both living in the home.When the children were 2, researchers videotaped them at home in free-play sessions with both parents, recording all of their 7. The study will appear in the November 8 of The Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.The scientists9 the total number of utterances of the parents, the number of different words they used, the10 of their sentences and other aspects of their speech. 11 average, fathers spoke less than mothers did, but they did not 12 in the length of utterances or proportion of questions asked.Finally, the researchers13 the children’s speech at age 3, using a standardized language test. The only predictors of high14 on the test were the mother’s level of education, the 15 of child care and the number of different words the father used.