The effect of mothers' discourse strategies on their children's development of comprehension

This research project was designed to investigate mothers' use of discourse features and the pragmatic functions they served in relation to children's development of comprehension abilities during the first three years of life. The purposes of this study were to investigate whether (1) mothers of slower language comprehenders and mothers' of faster language comprehenders spoke differently to their children in terms of their use of specific discourse features and functions when their children were ten, sixteen, twenty-two, and twenty-nine months of age, (2) mothers of the two groups changed in their use of specific discourse features and functions as the children's comprehension abilities changed, and (3) mothers' use of discourse features and functions predicted children's lexical and semantax development at different stages during the first three years of life.; Subjects were twenty-four mother-child dyads who were divided into two groups based on the children's comprehension abilities. The comprehension measures included: (1) age of acquiring ten, fifty, and one-hundred words, (2) rate of acquiring forty and ninety words, (3) performance on a two-part comprehension measure at sixteen, twenty-two, and twenty-five months, (3) performance on a three-part comprehension measure at twenty-seven months, and (4) performance on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-R and the Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development. These two groups differed significantly on all of the comprehension measures.; Mothers' input for discourse features and functions was analyzed for similarities and differences when the children were ten, sixteen, twenty-two, and twenty-nine months of age. Changes in the use of discourse features and functions were investigated when the children were between ten and sixteen months, sixteen and twenty-two months, and twenty-two and twenty-nine months. In addition, the discourse features and functions were subjected to factor analyses and used in step-wise multiple regression analyses to predict children's lexical and semantax abilities.; The results of the study show that mothers of faster language comprehenders use more semantically contingent responses and more turn-taking strategies at an earlier age than mothers of slower language comprehenders. The results suggest that mothers of faster language acquirers are leading their children whereas mothers of slower language acquirers are following their children.