title: Maternal responsiveness and children's achievement of language milestones.
abstract: This prospective longitudinal study examined the contribution of dimensions of maternal responsiveness (descriptions, play, imitations) to the timing of five milestones in children's (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 children's activities (e.g., vocalizations, play) were coded from videotaped interactions of mother-child free play; information about children's language acquisition was obtained through biweekly interviews with mothers from 9 through 21 months. Maternal responsiveness at both ages predicted the timing of children's achieving language milestones over and above children's 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Psychology, New York University, NY 10003, USA. ct1@is8.nyu.edu
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Tamis-LeMonda
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Bornstein
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Baumwell
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D010988:Play and Playthings; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D014705:Verbal Behavior