In this paper, I address the question of how interactions with deaf youth and their hearing interlocutors are able to unfold in economical and fluid ways despite the existence of sensory and communicative asymmetries. Bringing together ethnographic insights from two years of fieldwork in Iquitos, Peru with the microanalysis of moments of situated…

Maternal responsive and directive speech to children at ages 0;10 and 2;0 was investigated by applying a procedure frst introduced by Flynn and Masur (2007) to a new language community (Finnish). The issues examined were consistency and stability over time, and also the role of responsiveness and directiveness in child linguistic development at…

Principles of a dynamic, dyadic systems view of mother-infant face-to-face communication, which considers self- and interactive processes in relation to one another, were tested. The process of interaction across time in a large low-risk community sample at infant age 4 months was examined. Split-screen videotape was coded on a 1-s time base for…

Background: Identifying risk and protective factors for language development informs interventions for children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Maternal responsive and intrusive communicative behaviours are associated with language development. Mother-child interaction quality may influence how children use these behaviours in language…

One hundred dyads of low-income, Spanish-speaking mothers and their bilingual children (age = 12-18; M = 14.12, SD = 1.89) who have language brokered for the mother (i.e., culturally or linguistically mediated between the mother and English speakers) were surveyed. Multiple goals theory posits that mothers and children who do not recognize and…

Recent re-conceptualisation of paternal involvement (Pleck, J. H. (2010). Paternal involvement: Revised conceptualization and theoretical linkages with child outcomes. In M. Lamb (Ed.), "The role of the father in child development" (5th ed., pp. 67-107). London: Wiley), while proving fruitful, has yet to be applied to investigations into…

Family environment plays a very important role in early child development and the availability of stimulating material in the early years of a child's life is crucial for optimising development. The Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) inventory is one of the most widely used measures to assess the quality and quantity of…

An attempt was made in the present study to identify mothers' and caregivers' teaching (mediation) behaviour in relation to toddlers' social behaviour. Participants were 103 toddlers, two- to four-year olds, their mothers, and 28 caregivers at 16 public daycare centres in Israel. Two observations were carried out, one in toddlers' homes and the…

This article describes the application of the Diagnostic Intervention Model and its effects in two case studies of 3-year-old boys, Rolf and Ruud, using individual interaction coaching with their mothers. Positive effects were found for all the target categories in both cases, although an interaction that used materials appeared to be more…

When their infants were 6 months of age, mothers were assessed for self-efficacy (low, moderate, and high illusory control) and knowledge of infant development to determine their impact on mothers' behavioral sensitivity and affect during a feeding task at 9 months (N=70). Mothers' sensory sensitivity to digital images of infants' negative and…

Infants aged 9, 14, 20 and 24 months were observed looking at picture books with their mothers. The integration of pointing with verbal and visual behaviors together with activities pertaining to the task, such as page turning, are described. (Author/JMB)

Examines reciprocity in caregiver-child interactions by assessing 24 infants and their mothers with regard to temperament and maternal behavior, respectively. Results suggested that the more difficult the child temperamentally, the less the maternal responsiveness. (JMB)

Mothers of firstborn infants were videotaped playing with a six-month-old infant with sex-appropriate or cross-sex clothes and names. Toy choice and interaction styles varied with the perceived sex of the child. (BD)

Naturalistic observations of 20-month-old infants and their older siblings (1 1/2 or 3 years older) suggested the presence or absence of the mother may be an important variable in interactions between the two. (BJD)

Examines whether mothers modify their actions in response to infant facial expression or gaze direction. Subjects were seven pairs of mothers and infants (four to eight months old). Mothers were instructed to induce their infants to smile. (CM)