Two studies track connections from the distal variables of socioeconomic status (SES) and culture to properties of the interactions children experience and to the rate of children's language development. The first study is an investigation of the relations among family SES, properties of maternal child-directed speech, and child vocabulary growth in a sample of 2-year-olds in the United States. The second study is an investigation of the relations among maternal education, maternal ''language teaching practices,'' and child vocabulary and grammatical development in a sample of 2-4-year-olds in China. Together these findings reveal some of the ways in which the social and cultural contexts in which children live affect the course of their language development. Learning outcomes:: The reader will become aware of how the social and cultural milieu in which children live shapes their language experiences and consequent language development.