Maternal Communication Style of Toddlers with Developmental Language Delay during Toddler-Mother Interaction

Lee, Yoon Kyoung; Seol, AhYoung

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2012;17(2): 263-273.

Yoon Kyoung Lee^` , and AhYoung Seol^`

이윤경(Yoon Kyoung Lee)| 설아영(AhYoung Seol)

ABSTRACT

Background & Objectives
It was reported that the communicative style of mothers affected communication development of their child. This study aimed to examine the communicative style of toddlers with developmental language delay and their mothers during play interaction.
Methods
A total of forty-five toddlers ranging in age from 18 to 36 months and their mothers participated in this study including fifteen toddlers with developmental language delay (DLD) and their mothers, fifteen typical development toddlers matched for chronological age with the DLD individuals (CA controls) and their mothers, and fifteen typical development toddlers matched for language age with the DLD individuals (LA controls) and their mothers. Language samples of the toddlers and their mothers were collected during play interaction for 30 minutes. The mothers’ communicative behaviors were categorized into calling to attention, explaining, instructing, asking, and feedback, while the toddlers’ communicative behaviors were categorized into demanding, commenting, imitating, questioning, responding, and no response.
Results
The mothers of the DLD individuals used more of the explaining function and less feedback than the mothers of the CA controls. The DLD toddlers produced less commenting and responding and more no response behaviors than CA controls. The feedback of the mothers in all of the groups were significantly related to the response of their toddlers.
Discussion & Conclusion
The results of this study indicated that the communication style of mothers of DLD toddlers was slightly different than that of mothers of typical development toddlers.