Caregiver-child social communication: Effects of mother-child interactions on child development in the home

Social competence correlates with a variety of variables including child temperament, social environment, language competence, opportunities to interact, mother's social and language skills and number of peer interactions. The purpose of this study was to identify the nature of a young child's social and language competence as well as the impact of the primary caregiver's social and language interactions on a young child's social and language development. Thirty-two preschool children between the ages of 18 and 32 months participated in this study. This evaluation centered on measures of language competence and measures of social competence to assess a new variable (i.e., social communication). Children's social and language competencies and interactions with their caregivers were directly observed and assessed twice within a 6 month period.;Results of this study suggest that language is the more stable correlate when evaluating social communication. In addition, higher rates of child-caregiver social interactions and language interactions were related to better child language and social competencies. Finally, children in the low language group had less developed social skills and as a group they were less likely to initiate to adults or engage adults for long periods of time during social interactions. These findings indicate a need for early identification of language and social development deficits. Further, results suggest the need for early intervention that includes the primary caregiver, especially for children with both language and social skill deficits.