A study observed the interactive communication between three toddlers with blindness and their mothers in response to spontaneous events and to a series of novel events introduced systematically. Findings support the use of quasi-experimental observation of responses to ambiguous stimuli as a tool for assessing interactional strengths and…

Verbal/vocal interactions of three Japanese mother-child dyads were examined in toddlers to determine whether mothers provide information that may facilitate the elaboration of child lexical forms during the transition from the prelinguistic to the linguistic period. Mothers were found to reproduce only the child's word like utterances, both well-…

Comparison of communication between hearing mothers and their deaf or hearing children (n=80) at child-ages 22 months and 3 years found most of the differences in communication by mothers of deaf and hearing children seemed attributable to the deaf children's linguistic delays. Results suggest that intervention efforts should focus on fostering…

Compared the proportions of nouns and verbs in early vocabularies of English- and Mandarin-speaking toddlers and their mothers. Found that Mandarin-speaking children had relatively fewer nouns and more verbs than English-speaking children. When reading books, children's vocabularies were dominated by nouns but not when playing with toys. Mothers…

Prelinguistic children (N=58) with developmental delay received one of two staff-implemented treatments designed to increase intentional communication ability. Results confirmed the prediction that treatment effects on children's receptive and expressive language 6 and 12 months after intervention would vary as a function of pretreatment maternal…

The present investigation was designed to evaluate whether mothers' emotion experience, autonomic reactivity, and negatively biased appraisals of their toddlers' behavior and toddlers' rates of misbehavior predicted overreactive discipline in a mediated fashion. Ninety-three community mother-toddler dyads were observed in a laboratory interaction,…

This study examined mothers' teaching about home-safety issues to 24-30 month and 36-42 month old children, explored the relationship of teaching strategies to parenting styles, and assessed how these factors are related to children's risk of unintentional injury. A structured interview assessed home-safety issues relevant to falls, burns, cuts,…

Background: Children who have reached the age of 2 years without having acquired a 50-word vocabulary and/or who use no word combinations are referred to in the literature as "Late Talkers". Research has not yet identified the factors that cause slow development of expressive language; in particular, relatively little research has been carried out…

This study examined transcripts of 63 mealtime, dyadic interactions of mothers and their children. An earlier investigation of the effects of social class and communicative setting on maternal speech found a significant class difference and within-class variability in the amount of speech mothers directed to their children. There were significant…

The Living Systems Framework was used to generate four categories of parent behaviors that might affect processes responsible for eliciting prosocial behavior in children: (1) teaching values, rules, and standards; (2) providing opportunities for rehearsal and mastery; (3) providing opportunities for self-regulation and self-control; and (4)…

Recounted in these two very brief papers are ways a mother arranged the home environment to teach basic skills to her 2-year-old child while enabling her daughter to play in a constructive way. The first paper focuses on learning colors and letters, storyreading at bedtime, and beginning reading activities when the child started to speak.…

A study attempted to determine dimensions of maternal adaptation of language to the level of their young children's speech, and whether patterns of maternal adaptation can be described as interactive maternal styles. Links were sought between aspects of maternal language adaptation and child language level. Participating were 6 mother-child dyads…

A concept of seductive mother-toddler relationships was initially validated. Subsequent research showed "seductiveness" was stable, though transformed, from 24 to 42 months; the same mothers were not found to be seductive with male or female siblings; mothers seductive with boys were derisively hostile toward daughters. (Author/RH)

Attempts to clarify and empirically examine the role played by a toddler's self-comforting skill in facilitating the separation-individuation process. Study did support the prediction that the mother's fostering of independence would predict secure attachment. The effects of mothers' style of comforting were also examined. (Author/RWB)

A total of 36 American and African mothers and their children in three age cohorts from 6 to 36 months of age interacted around age-appropriate teaching tasks. Major behavioral differences between cultural groups and tasks were demonstrated. (Author/RH)