This study evaluated the effects of a home-based parent training program on the language development of young children of 28 mothers with mental retardation. Interaction training consisted of verbal instruction, modeling, feedback, and tangible reinforcement. After training, parent/child interaction scores were no longer lower than those of a…

In a study of differential socialization of boys and girls by mothers and fathers, families of 12 and 18 month olds, and 5 year olds, were examined at home. There were several differences in mothers' and fathers' reactions to boys and girls. Implications for further studies of parental sex-role socialization are discussed. (GLR)

This study examined maternal contributions to development of spontaneous mastery in 30 toddlers with and 31 without cerebral palsy. Mothers in the 2 groups did not differ in the quality and appropriateness of interactions with their children. Maternal involvement was found to contribute significantly to both spontaneous mastery and developmental…

Drawing on interviews with six American and Korean mothers, this article explores the range and coalescence of ideas that mothers from different cultures have about interactions with their 12-month-old babies in social interactive play and joint play with objects. Differences and similarities about the mothers' ideas about interaction are…

Qualitative analysis of videotape recordings of seven mothers and their sons with autism (ages 2 and 3) found that mothers mostly engaged in verbal regard (conversation) and directive behaviors. Sons were able to give some form of regard 69% of the time, mostly in the form of active task participation rather than verbal or visual regard.…

Mothers' and fathers' responses to their children's spontaneous sibling conflicts were observed. Findings indicated that associations between parents' conflict management strategy and sibling interaction quality varied according to children's ages, gender of the monitoring parent, and type of strategy. Passive nonintervention was highly associated…

The present study investigated the extent to which maternal intrusiveness and warmth during play, observed in 579 European American, 412 African American, and 110 more and 131 less acculturated Mexican American low-income families when children were approximately 15 months old, predicted 3 dimensions of the mother-toddler relationship 10 months…

Background: Associations between early mother-child mutually responsive orientation (MRO) and children's conscience have been previously established, but the mechanisms accounting for those links are not understood. We examined three such mediational mechanisms: (a) the child's enhanced enjoyment of interactions with the mother, (b) increased…

Purpose: This qualitative study explored mothers' perceptions of their children's communication disabilities, emergent literacy development, and speech-language therapy programs. Method: Participants were 14 Mexican immigrant mothers and their children (age 17-47 months) who were receiving center-based services from an early childhood intervention…

Many women seek treatment for substance abuse problems during their child-bearing years. Evaluations of interventions for these women need to take into account other problems that women may have when they enter treatment. The effectiveness of residential treatment for women, some of whom reported a history of abuse and psychological problems, is…

A study of 41 toddlers (ages 18-25 months) with hearing impairments and their hearing mothers and 54 typical toddlers and their hearing mothers, investigated whether the development of a normal mother-child relationship is disrupted by the inability of the child to understand his/her mother's normal means of communication. The study also explored…

This study examined the effects of maternal directive and nondirective styles of interaction on the emergence of verbal communicative intent in toddlers, and sought to understand the association between maternal interaction styles and young children's pragmatic acquisition. During free play, maternal utterances of 12 mother-child dyads, with…

The physical and neurobehavioral findings at 3 years of age for 39 children born to mothers on methadone- maintenance and 23 children born to drug-free comparison mothers are reported. The methadone children had a higher incidence of head circumferences less than the third percentile, nystagmus/strabismus, and otitis media. No differences were…

This longitudinal, ethological study explores the development of communication behaviors, different types of social peer interactions, and mother-child interaction among 15 boys and 15 girls from 16 through 30 months of age. Each subject was filmed twice each month over a period of 14 months while he or she had lunch with 5 peers. Several subjects…

A study tested the hypothesis that if, for the 2-year-old, the transitive/intransitive distinction functions to signal differences in the conceptualization of actions, the child's sentence production should show a relationship between sentence frame and (1) locus of change animacy and (2) the child's expectations concerning an action's outcome.…