Maternal discourse features used with language-normal preschoolers with facial deformities.
Discourse features of 10 mothers of language-normal preschool children with repaired cleft palates were examined. Mothers had been provided training in infant stimulation. Fifty-six percent of the communication initiations within the mother-child dyads were made by the mothers. That level of responsibility for continuity of communication resembles the percentage of discourse initiation reported for mothers of language-normal children without orofacial clefts. All categories of utterance types were used by the subjects; a predominance was found among attention-getters and indirect directives. Distribution of discourse features appears to differ from that reported for mothers of both language-normal and language-impaired children who do not have orofacial clefts.
Scheuerle
J
J
University of South Florida.
Guilford
A M
AM
Worden
L
L
Habal
M B
MB
D002675:Child, Preschool; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations