The objective of this thesis and research are mealtime talks and parents attitudes towards them, ways they are conducted in and the importance they hold on early child language development. The thesis presents, based on relevant literature, a theoretical framework of language acquisition, defines the term family, describes the history of food culture and its link to mealtime talk. Two scientific papers are presented describing mealtime talk, their reasearch, the link bethween mealtime talk and literacy development. In addition, research was carried out amongst 115 parents, questioning the way mealtime talk is conducted. The goal was to gain insight into todays contemporary family, into parents attitudes and habits concerning mealtime talk, and trace the links bethween maltime talk and literacy development. The research instrument was an online survey aimed at eliciting parents attitudes. Based on the obtained responses, it may be concluded that parents are greatly aware of the importance of mealtime talk. Frequecy of the familys mealtime as well as the amount of family members present during mealtimes, speak in its favour. As head advantages of family mealtime talk, parents state, developmen of sense of beloging and sense of ones identity, an opportunity for socializing and talking, learning to enjoy family interaction. It also provides opportunities for learning cultural norms and patterns as well as place of affordances to practice communications skills, language skills that contribute to later academic success.