Catherine S. Tamis-LeMonda

Maternal Responsiveness and Children's Achievement of Language Milestones

This prospective longitudinal study examined the contribution of dimensions of maternal responsiveness (descriptions, play, imitations) to the timing of five milestones in childrens (N = 40) early expressive language: first imitations, first words, 50 words in expressive language, combinatorial speech, and the use of language to talk about the past. Events-History Analysis, a statistical technique that estimates the extent to which predictors influence the timing of events, was used. At 9 and 13 months, maternal responsiveness and childrens activities (e.g., vocalizations, play) were coded from videotaped interactions of mother-child free play; information about childrens language acquisition was obtained through biweekly interviews with mothers from 9 through 21 months. Maternal responsiveness at both ages predicted the timing of childrens achieving language milestones over and above childrens observed behaviors. Responsiveness at 13 months was a stronger predictor of the timing of language milestones than was responsiveness at 9 months, and certain dimensions of responsiveness were more predictive than others. The multidimensional nature of maternal responsiveness and specificity in mother-child language relations are discussed.

Family Resources and Parenting Quality: Links to Children’s Cognitive Development Across the First 3 Years

Reciprocal associations among measures of family resources, parenting quality, and child cognitive performance were investigated in an ethnically diverse, low-income sample of 2,089 children and families. Family resources and parenting quality uniquely contributed to childrens cognitive performance at 14, 24, and 36 months, and parenting quality mediated the effects of family resources on childrens performance at all ages. Parenting quality continued to relate to childrens cognitive performance at 24 and 36 months after controlling for earlier measures of parenting quality, family resources, and child performance. Similarly, childrens early cognitive performance related to later parenting quality above other measures in the model. Findings merge economic and developmental theories by highlighting reciprocal influences among childrens performance, parenting, and family resources over time.

Maternal verbal sensitivity and child language comprehension

Abstract This longitudinal investigation examined covariation among specific maternal behaviors and their differential prediction of childrens language comprehension across the transition to beginning speech. Forty mother-infant dyads were videotaped during free play in their homes when children were 9 and 13 months old. At each age, six maternal behaviors and childrens language comprehension were assessed. Two factors of maternal interaction, labeled verbal sensitivity and verbal intrusiveness, were extracted at the two ages; the two factors were stable across this 4-month period. Nine-month maternal sensitivity, but not intrusiveness, uniquely predicted 13-month child language comprehension and did so over and above childrens 9-month language comprehension, which was itself stable between the two ages. Maternal verbal sensitivity was especially influential in promoting comprehension among children who were initially lower in language comprehension, a finding that has implications for the design of intervention strategies. These findings confirm models of environmental specificity which state that certain aspects of parenting, in contrast with others, affect particular outcomes in the child; in this regard, we contrast the importance of maternal verbal sensitivity for childrens language development with other kinds of maternal interaction.

Specificity in Mother-Toddler Language-Play Relations Across the Second Year

Relations among specific aspects of language (comprehension and production, semantics and utterance length) and relations between language and symbolic play were evaluated when children were 13 and 20 months of age. The contributions of maternal stimulation to toddler performance and whether associations among toddler abilities might be explained by maternal behaviors were also examined. Although measures of toddler language covaried, language-play associations in toddlers were specific to semantic aspects of language. Associations between mother and toddler behaviors emerged and tended to be specific: Maternal language related to toddler language, and maternal play related to toddler play. Moreover, relations among toddler abilities maintained after maternal influences were partialed. The multidimensional structure of language and specificities in languageplay associations were discussed with reference to models of early representational development.

Functional Analysis of the Contents of Maternal Speech to Infants of 5 and 13 Months in Four Cultures: Argentina, France, Japan, and the United States.

Maternal speech to infants of 2 ages in 4 cultures was examined to probe how infant age and cultural variation influence the contents of that speech. Argentine, French, Japanese, and U.S. American mothers were individually videotaped in naturalistic free-play interactions at home with their 5- and 13-month-old infants, maternal speech was transcribed, and the contents classified as affect salient or information salient

Why Is Infant Language Learning Facilitated by Parental Responsiveness

Parents’ responsiveness to infants’ exploratory and communicative behaviors predicts infant word learning during early periods of language development. We examine the processes that might explain why this association exists. We suggest that responsiveness supports infants’ growing pragmatic understanding that language is a tool that enables intentions to be socially shared. Additionally, several features of responsiveness—namely, its temporal contiguity, contingency, and multimodal and didactic content—facilitate infants’ mapping of words to their referents and, in turn, growth in vocabulary. We close by examining the generalizability of these processes to infants from diverse cultural communities.

Mothers’ attuned responses to infant affect expressivity promote earlier achievement of language milestones

To investigate infants’ affective expressivity and maternal attuned responsiveness to infant expressivity in relation to early language achievement, 77 dyads were visited in their homes at 9 and 13 months, and mothers were interviewed about their children’s language between 9 and 21 months. Maternal responses that were attuned to infant affect, by selectively matching either the gradient features or the valence of infants’ affective expressions, were more predictive of children’s language achievement than maternal nonmatching responses; and maternal matching responses at 9 months were more predictive of children’s language achievements than maternal responses at 13 months. Moreover, maternal matching responses at 9 months predicted second-year language achievements over and above infant affect expressivity at 9 and 13 months, and over and above maternal matching responses at 13 months. Infants’ affective expressivity per se was not predictive.

Maternal Depressive Symptoms in Relation to Dimensions of Parenting in Low-Income Mothers

Relations between maternal depressive symptoms and parenting were examined in low-income, inner-city mothers and their 18- to 24-month-old toddlers. Maternal depressive symptoms were measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) depression inventory, and 3 dimensions of parenting were assessed from maternal interviews and home visits: (a) provision of age-appropriate play materials, (b) organization of the home environment, and (c) quality of mother-child interactions. Maternal depressive symptoms related inversely to the quality of mother-child interactions, but did not relate to the provision of play materials and organization of the home environment. High scores on the CES-D were associated with less sensitivity, engagement, affection, and more rigidity in mothers; with less compliance, affection, engagement, and gentleness in children. In addition, higher CES-D scores were associated with less mutual communication, reciprocity, and enjoyment in the dyad. Neither socioeconomic status, maternal IQ, nor absence-presence of a partner related directly to parenting. These findings suggest that maternal depressive symptoms play a key role in the quality of mother-child interactions.

Mother and Infant Activity and Interaction in Japan and in the United States: II. A Comparative Microanalysis of Naturalistic Exchanges Focused on the Organisation of Infant Attention

This study compares and contrasts activities and interactions related to maternal organisation of infant attention toward mother and toward the environment in Japanese and U.S. American mother-infant dyads. Observational data derived from 48 Tokyo and New York City mothers and their 5month-old infants seen at home were submitted to microanalysis. Relations among selected mother and infant activities, notably maternal control of and responsiveness to attentional focus in infants, are evaluated using cooccurrence and lag-sequential analyses. American and Japanese mothers and babies engaged in most activities at similar rates. However, American mothers appear to respond to environmental involvement in their infants by further encouraging infants to attend to properties, objects, or events in the environment, whereas it is during periods of decreased environmental interest and increased social interest that Japanese mothers deploy didactic encouragement. The results reveal activity and interaction patterns which are similar between these two cultures, as well as patterns which are culturespecific.

Familismo in Mexican and Dominican Families From Low-Income,Urban Communities

Familismo has been described as a core cultural value for Latinos, but there have been few studies of its attitudinal and behavioral manifestations. We explored attitudinal and behavioral familismo using qualitative data collected from 23 Latina mothers who participated in an ethnographic study. The study employed semistructured interviews and participant observation methods carried out across 10 to 12 home visits for each participant. Results indicate that behavioral familismo manifests in five specific areas—financial support, shared daily activities, shared living, shared childrearing, and immigration—and functions as a dynamic construct that moves along a continuum of costs and benefits, over time and across situations, with implications for children’s development. The discussion highlights familismo as both a risk and protective factor for low-income, urban Latino families and underscores the importance of considering the balance between its costs and benefits in studies of Latino child development.