Lisa Baumwell

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.

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.

Parent-child conversations during play

The language of mothers, fathers, and children was examined in 50 low-income families. Mother–child and father–child dyads were videotaped separately during play when children were 2;0 years old. Language transcriptions were coded for communicative diversity, word types, and grammatical complexity in parents and children. Mother–child and father–child conversations were similar and were strongly correlated at the dyad level, although differences emerged in the repetitions of children’s utterances, closed-ended questions, affirmations, and action directives. Mothers’ and fathers’ language related to children’s language in specific ways. Individual children experience relatively enriched or impoverished language environments, rather than one parent “compensating” for the other. This may explain why some low-income children lag in their language development early on, whereas others are “on track.”