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Maternal verbal responsiveness and directiveness: consistency, stability, and relations to child early linguistic development*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2017

LEILA PAAVOLA-RUOTSALAINEN ,
JAANA LEHTOSAARI ,
JOSEFINA PALOMÄKI  and
IMMI TERVO
LEILA PAAVOLA-RUOTSALAINEN*
Affiliation:
University of Oulu, Faculty of Humanities, Logopedics, Child Language Research Center, Oulu, Finland
JAANA LEHTOSAARI
Affiliation:
Coronaria Kuntoutus Oy Ltd, Therapy Center, Oulu, Finland
JOSEFINA PALOMÄKI
Affiliation:
Coronaria Kuntoutus Oy Ltd, Therapy Center, Helsinki, Finland
IMMI TERVO
Affiliation:
CogniMed Oy Ltd, Therapy Center, Helsinki, Finland
*
*Address for correspondence: Leila Paavola-Ruotsalainen. e-mail: leila.paavola@oulu.fi
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Abstract

Maternal responsive and directive speech to children at ages 0;10 and 2;0 was investigated by applying a procedure first introduced by Flynn and Masur (2007) to a new language community (Finnish). The issues examined were consistency and stability over time, and also the role of responsiveness and directiveness in child linguistic development at 1;0 and 2;6. The measures of maternal speech from each age were used to predict the results of the subsequent linguistic assessment. Negative correlations between responsive and directive utterances were found at both ages. The frequencies of responsive utterances and supportive directives increased over time. Responsiveness was positively, and intrusive directiveness negatively, related to child early comprehensive skills and the use of symbolic actions and communicative gestures. By contrast, no relations were found between responsiveness and directiveness and children's later linguistic capacities.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , March 2018 , pp. 319 - 339
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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